Uncle Riku's Christmas Tales
by MarleneShadowheart
Summary: Merry Christmas everyone! Instead of writing a holiday one-shot, I have decided to write one GINORMOUS Christmas story told by everyone's favorite, Uncle Riku! It will warm your heart and shine some light on your pale life forever...
1. Prologue

**Hello all, and Merry Christmas! (Or if you want to get technical, Happy ChristmaHannuKwanzaDan!) **

**Disclaimers: I most certainly do not own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Tetsuya Nomura (although there was that one kidnapping incident in Santa Monaco...but I digress! :D), or any of the messed up pairing I include or the Christmas stories I am writing about! **

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><p>"Okay," said Xion. "Pick a card."<p>

Sora groaned. "Xion, you've been doing card tricks for the last two hours!" he whined. "I wanna do something else!"

Xion shook her head. "No, no! This time, I can make it come out of my ear, or maybe even out of my mouth, or..."

"Xioooonn!" groaned Sora. "Pleeeeaaase!"

Xion sighed, and put the cards away. "Fine," she said. She called behind her, "Hey Axel, what do you want to do?"

Axel stood with his face about two centimeters away from the fireplace, watching the flames go up and down, up and down. He giggled softly. "Pretty fire," he whispered.

Xion groaned. "Roxas!" she shouted. "You've been in the bathroom for years! What gives?"

Roxas groaned from inside the tiny bathroom. "Those burritos aren't being very nice to me!" he moaned. "Why, Kingdom Hearts, WHY?"

Zexion and Demyx burst through the door of Sora's room. They slammed the door shut behind them, and then grabbed pillows to block it just in case.

Zexion shook his head. "If anyone asks, we're not here!" he whispered. Someone pounded on the door.

"C'mon, guys!" begged Kairi from the other side of the door. "Just let us braid your hair once!"

"Never!" shouted Demyx, holding the doorknob in place with his hand.

"Just a little French braid!" said Namine, who was next to Kairi on the other side. "We promise it won't hurt a bit!"

Zexion curled up in a ball next to the door, and began rocking back and forth. "They lie," he said softly. "They lie..."

Kairi and Namine started to shove their weight against the door. Demyx and Zexion held the door in place as best as they could, but they weren't even half as strong as the girls.

Zexion turned to Xion in his desperate time of need. "Help us," he said desperately.

Xion rolled her eyes. "Just let them braid your hair," she said.

"I'll pay you!" said Zexion.

"Okay!" Xion got up and went to go help the boys block the door, Sora as well. "Roxas, come on and help us!" she grunted.

"Oohh, man," moaned Roxas from inside the bathroom. "I really shouldn't have double-dosed on the sour cream..."

The war waged in for about five more minutes, so close that you could hardly tell who was winning. "Haha! Hey, Riku! Join us!" exclaimed Sora, smiling.

Riku lay curled up in his sleeping bag, facing the opposite wall. He pulled his pillow closer to him. It wasn't his fault Sora just had to throw a sleepover the night before Christmas. His cold was so bad that he didn't even want to come.

But then he sprouted an idea. "I've got a better idea, guys," he said. "How about...I tell you a story?"

Sora stopped pulling. "A story?" he said. Once everyone else heard, they stopped pulling too, and Kairi and Namine pushed through the door and crashed into the other side, until they all ended up in a pile on the floor.

"Yeah," said Riku. _At least they'll be quieter that way, _he thought.

He blew his nose, lifted up his sleeping bad as he got up, and hopped over to the fireplace, where he seated himself in a large rocking chair.

Sora and the others ran over to the fireplace (kicking Axel out of the way of the pretty fire), got comfortable with pillows and blankets and cups of cocoa, and leaned in intently as they waited for Riku to begin.

Riku sneezed into his elbow, and rubbed his eyes. "What story do you want me to tell?" he asked.

Sora and the others all contributed their ideas at once.

"Snow White!"

"Sleeping Beauty!"

"Beauty and the Beast!"

"Cinderella!"

Riku shook his head. "Don't you guys know any Christmas stories?" he said.

The room fell silent as they struggled to think of one, but nobody could.

Sora leaned forward and made his eyes grow really huge and adorable. "Can you make up one of your own?" he asked sweetly.

Riku, being a sucker for Sora's chibi face, took on the challenge and nodded. He took his blindfold out of his pocket, and tied it across his eyes. "Don't you want to come out and listen, Roxas?" he shouted.

"I'm listening," said Roxas.

Riku shrugged, coughed, and leaned in close. "Well," he said. "I'll start off with a few of my personal favorites..."


	2. The Three Ghosts of Christmas

**WARNING: This chapter contains AkuRoku, Xemnas/Saix, Vexen/Marluxia, Larxene (enough said...), men in ballgowns, and nostalgic old guys. You have been warned.**

The Three Ghosts of Christmas

That Christmas Eve morning, the houses, stores and streets were full of warmth and happiness as families all over town got ready to celebrate Christmas.

Except for one particular case.

One man, a moneylender, was still working in his shop, even though practically nobody came. In fact, it is believed that the two of them—this moneylender and his employee—were the only ones working that day.

His assistant sighed and brought himself closer to the small fire glowing in the fireplace. Since his boss was a very stingy and cheap man, he wouldn't even purchase more firewood to help enlarge the flame. Even so, the poor man couldn't help but smile at the gentle glow that the fire emitted, for it made his workplace a little more…bearable.

The cold silence was soon interrupted by a knock on the door. The boss sighed, and shouted, "Come in!"

A jolly young man burst through the door, his exuberance practically filling the entire room with light. "Hello all," he exclaimed, his cheeks flushed with excitement, "and Merry Christmas!"

The employee smiled, and replied, "Merry Christmas, Mr. Demyx, sir!"

The employee's boss simply growled at the young visitor, and continued his work.

Demyx approached the old miser, and smiled. "Why, Uncle Vexen, aren't you going to wish me a Merry Christmas?"

This time, Vexen actually looked up at Demyx giving off sour vibes. "Bah, humbug!" he grumbled, and tried to focus on his papers.

Demyx put on a fake pout. "Bah humbug?" he said mockingly. He propped his elbows up on Vexen's desk and brought his face up close to his. "Wouldn't you like to come over to my place for our annual Christmas Party?" he said, batting his eyelashes.

Vexen shoved his nephew's face away from his own, and looked him straight in the eye. "I wouldn't attend one of your Christmas parties even if you paid me!" He cried, which was saying something since he loved money more than anything in the world.

Demyx cocked his head to the side like a lost puppy. "Pleaaaaaase?" he pleaded.

"No!" said Vexen.

"Pretty please with a crumpet on top…?"

"I said NO!" Vexen got up abruptly from his chair, and started pushing Demyx out the door. "I have no time for your silly games or your stupid parties!" he shouted.

He finally shoved his nephew out the door, and looked down on him. "And I absolutely HATE Christmas!" He slammed the door shut with a loud BANG, started walking back to his desk, paused, and then opened the door again and shouted, "And I think crumpets are totally LAME!"

He slammed the door shut again, and was just about to go back to his desk when the he took out his pocket watch and noticed that it was already four-o-clock—closing time.

He sighed, and looked at his assistant, who was still warming himself by the small flame. "It's closing time, Mr. Axel," he said sadly.

Axel leaped up from his seat and grabbed his coat and scarf off of the coat rack. As he slipped on the worn and tattered coat (he was a very poor man, after all), he stopped for a moment, and looked up at his boss. "Umm, Mr. Vexen, sir?" he asked timidly.

Vexen did not look at the man. "Yes, Mr. Axel?" he asked, facing him with a rather bored expression.

Mr. Vexen was a very bony, queer looking man with thinning grayish-blond hair and a permanent sneer on his face. Basically, he wasn't the prettiest daisy in the garden.

Axel swallowed, and then continued. "Well…it's Christmas Eve, sir, which means that tomorrow is Christmas Day…"

Vexen raised one eyebrow suspiciously. "What's your point?" he asked.

Axel looked down at the floor. "Well, would it be alright with you if…I spent Christmas with my family back at home, sir?"

Vexen's face turned red with anger. "C-Christmas?" he shouted. "You want to spend Christmas Day with your family?"

Axel shuffled his feet nervously. "Y-Yes," he said meekly.

Vexen exploded. "Wha—I thought you were my loyal employee!" he screamed, throwing his arms up in the air. "I already gave you Thanksgiving break, and Easter break…"

"N-No, you didn't…"

"Yes I—I didn't?" asked Vexen, a look up surprise on his face. Axel shook his head in dismay.

Vexen sighed, and took out a slip of paper, which happened to have all the work days and hours penciled in. He looked at the box for 12/25, and rolled his eyes.

"Fine," he said, marking an X on that date. "But I expect you to come in an hour early the morning after, otherwise…"

Axel jumped up and down with joy, and clasped Vexen's hand in his. "Oh, thank you, Mr. Vexen!" he cried, shaking his hand vigorously. "You won't be sorry, I assure you!"

Vexen closed his eyes in annoyance. "Young man, you are cutting off the circulation in my…"

Axel didn't hear him. "Oh, just wait till I tell the Mrs.! She'll be so excited!"

With that, Axel wrapped his threadbare scarf around his neck, and hopped out the door, singing a little jingle as he ran home to tell his family the happy news.

Vexen grumbled to himself as he wrapped himself in his expensive mink coat, extinguished Axel's small fire just by looking at it (hehe, glare of ice, get it?), and locked the door behind him as he headed towards home.

As the approached the front door of his house, he sighed to himself as he fumbled to find his keys.

He looked challengingly at the knocker on his door, which resembled the face of a lion. "You think you're so hot," he said, sneering.

Suddenly, the face of the knocker transformed into the face of a man, his old business partner, in fact.

The man screamed at Vexen angrily. "GRRRAAAAAAHHHH!"

Vexen leaped back from the doorway, stumbling and crashing into the snowy street behind him. He shook the snow off of his hair and blinked a few times, not quite believing in what he just saw.

But the knocker had already changed back into the appearance of a lion's face by the time the old man had taken a good look at it.

Cursing, Vexen peeled himself off of the snow, unlocked his door very carefully, and quickly scuttled inside, away from the unwanted cold.

Once back in his cold, dark house, Vexen put on his best night gown—ur...robe, and sat himself down in his hardest arm chair by the fire.

He reached next to him and grabbed his dinner off of the table. Taking a large scoop of the unidentified gray slush, he raised the spoon to his thin lips and tasted it.

It was cold and bland, just the way he liked it.

He took another spoonful of the mixture, and was just about to take another bite when he heard a mysterious noise from below the floorboards.

"Ooohhhhhhh..."

Vexen paused and waited as the room became silent once more. Nothing.

The old man shrugged and continued to eat his "Christmas dinner", until he heard the groan again, followed by the sound of footsteps.

"OOOooohhhhhh!"

_Creak! Creak! Creak!_

Vexen stopped once again, his heart thumping in his chest. _There's nobody else here,_ he thought. _Nobody..._

_CreakCreakCreakCreakCreak..._

The footsteps grew louder and louder as they came closer and closer. Vexen's breathing started to quicken as the fire in the fireplace went out; the grandfather clock by his bed started to ring; the bell above his front door tinkled; and the pots and pans in his kitchen all crashed to the floor.

_CreakCreakCreakCreak!_

_Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!_

_Dong! Dong! Dong!_

_Crash! Bang! Clang! Clatter! Crash!_

_CreakCreakCreak!_

Vexen squeezed his eyes shut, beads of sweat dripping down his face. _It'll go away! It's just some rotten prank!_

And then the noise stopped, revealing a deafening silence.

Vexen opened his eyes, and took a deep breath. Relaxing his shoulders, he stirred his watery gruel and continued to take another bite.

"VEXEN!"

"GAAAHHH!" Vexen flung his dinner across the room in fright and looked in front of him. "W-W-Who's there?" he called, not seeing anyone.

The voice sighed. "I'm behind you," the voice said, exasperated.

Shaking, Vexen slowly turned his body around to face whatever had just spoken to him. There, standing in the center of the room, stood Vexen's deceased business partner, with chains weighing down his semi-transparent arms and chest.

Vexen slowly approached the man. "Z-Zexion?" he whispered. "Aren't you supposed to be d-d-dead?"

Zexion picked a speck of dust off of his shoulder, which didn't make much of a difference since he had been dead for about seven years. "Oh, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" he said sarcastically. "How are you?"

Vexen didn't find Zexion's old sarcasm very funny anymore. He sat down, his hand clutched over his chest in precaution to a heart attack he could feel coming on. "Why are you here?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

Zexion sighed, and pulled on some of the chains that where partially stuck in the wall behind him. As the other ends came out, check boxes, safes, and piggy banks attached to their ends came crashing to the floor.

Zexion sat down on one of the safes, his chains chingling as he moved. "Because," he said, looking up glumly. "When I was alive, I used to be just like you, Vexen—the only thing I cared about was making and saving money. After I died, instead of being sent up to that big bachelor pad up in the sky..."

Zexion shook his head and looked up longingly. He shook the chains surrounding his body. "I got stuck wandering the streets alone, with nothing to do except drag around what I used to love the most."

He kicked one of the check boxes lying on the floor, and turned to Vexen. "Which is why," he said, a softer tone in his voice. "I have decided to help you avoid the same fate as mine."

Vexen scrunched up his face in confusion. "That's unlike you," he said.

Zexion could only shrug. "You learn something after nearly a decade of servitude," he said. He snapped his fingers, and a golden pocket watch appeared, so expensive looking that Vexen had to refrain from reaching out and touching it.

He glanced at the time. "You are to be visited by three other ghosts," said Zexion, not looking up.

Vexen's eyes widened in horror. "No," he said. "No, no, no, no..."

Zexion didn't listen. "When the clock strikes one," he said, "you will be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past."

"B-But what does this have to do with—"

"When the clock strikes two," said Zexion, ignoring him still, "you will be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present."

"Really, I don't think this is necessary—"

"And when the clock strikes three," Zexion drilled on, "you will be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come."

"Now hang on just one moment!" screamed Vexen. He marched right up to Zexion and waggled his finger in front of the apparition's nose. "I am most certainly NOT going to sit here and wait for three ghosts of Christmas-whatever so they can teach me lessons about 'morality' and 'kindnesses!' I am most certainly happy just the way I am!"

Zexion raised his eyebrows in disapproval, and suddenly grew two feet taller, so that he was now looking down at the cranky old man. His gaze darkened. "You WILL be visited by three ghosts," he boomed, his voice ringing throughout the room.

And before Vexen could protest again, Zexion snapped his fingers, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Vexen coughed and sputtered, while trying to push away the smoke as best as he could. But as he pushed the fog away, he came to realize that he was very, very sleepy.

So without another word, Vexen fell back onto his hard arm chair, and fell fast asleep.

_Dong!_

Vexen woke with a start as the grandfather clock struck one.

He slowly sat up, rubbed his eyes sleepily, then froze as he looked around and saw where he was.

True, the grandfather clock was still there, but the rest of the scenery had changed. Instead of his dark, creaky house, he found himself sitting at a long, white table in a small white room, with drawings and illustrations covering the walls. Thin white curtains swayed in front of an open window, allowing a gentle nighttime breeze into the room.

He blinked a few times as he studied the room, not even noticing that someone else was there with him.

"Vexen," said a small voice.

Vexen raised his eyebrows in surprise as he saw a young girl sitting at the other end of the table, her blond hair cascading down her shoulder like an angel. "Who are you?" he said, a little spooked.

The girl put her hand to her heart as she introduced herself. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Past," she said. "But you can just call me, Namine."

Since Vexen lived in a small, dark house on a pretty much abandoned street, he didn't get to see young women very often. Especially young women with short white dresses.

He gave her a creepy smile and leaned forward. "Well, how about I call you, Nami, or how about NeNe, or—"

Namine cleared her throat. "Just Namine," she interrupted, leaving behind an incredibly awkward silence.

Vexen half nodded, then sat back down in his seat.

After what seemed like forever, Namine finally broke the silence by standing up. "Well," she said. "Come along, then."

Vexen gripped his chair nervously, and gave her a look. "Where are we going?" he asked.

Namine walked over swiftly, and grabbed him by the hand. "You'll see," she said. Slowly, she walked over to the open window, and stepped onto the ledge, still holding onto Vexen's hand.

Vexen tried to pull his hand away, but it seemed as if her hand had hardened into steel. "What are you doing?" he cried, trying to yank himself away. "Let go of me!"

Instead of answering, Namine leaped out the window like a bird, taking the old man down with her. But, instead of falling down, they seemed to do the exact opposite—they started to fly.

Vexen gasped as he felt another heart attack coming on. "Wha-What kind of witchcraft is this?" he shouted, wiggling around in the sky.

Namine used her free hand to open up a doorway of light in front of them. The door suddenly opened. "We're traveling to your past, Mr. Vexen," said Namine. And so, the two of them flew into the doors of light, which shut quickly behind them.

Inside Vexen's past, night suddenly turned to day as they soared above forests, houses, and buildings.

Namine lowered them down so that they were hovering next to the second floor of a workhouse, and pointed at one of the windows. "Take a look," she said softly.

Curiosity got the best of Vexen, and he peered inside. There, making tools with all the other boys, sat a childhood version of Mr. Vexen himself.

Vexen gave a little cry of surprise. "Why, that's me as a little boy!" he cried happily. "I worked in this shop every day for ten years!"

Namine nodded. "You worked here, and saved up your weekly salary so that one day, you could become the wealthy man you always dreamed of being. Now, come," she led him away from the window, and traveled a little farther until she led him through the front door of a large mansion.

She gestured at the party going on around them. "Does this seem familiar?" she asked.

Vexen glanced around, and gave out another gasp of joy as he recognized familiar faces. "There I am!" he shouted, pointing at a handsome young man in a rich green tuxedo.

Looking around some more, he spotted two men standing at the front of the room—one had long, silver hair and a deep blue tuxedo with ruffles, and the other had luscious, blue hair and a rich, custom designed pink dress that drooped a little off the shoulders.

"And that was my boss, Mr. Xemnas, and his wife, Saix!" yelled Vexen happily. "You know, those people were the richest I've ever known, and yet every year they insisted on spending it all on their annual Christmas parties!"

Vexen couldn't help but smile a little and look down at his hands. "And they were wonderful parties," he said quietly to himself.

Namine pretended not to hear that part, and took him by the hand again. "Hurry!" she whispered. "There is still much more to see!"

Namine led the reluctant man out of the room, and back into the sky they rose. Farther and farther they flew, until landing on the fluffy snow in a park.

Vexen was just about to exclaim that the older man standing near the park bench was another younger version of himself, but paused as he noticed the man who was standing next to him.

"That's…" he murmured, unable to finish his sentence.

Namine put her finger to his lips, and beckoned him forward in order to hear the couple's conversation.

Young Vexen looked deep into the other man's eyes with worry. "My darling, what is the matter? You're shaking all over."

The other man brushed his pink locks behind his ear, and sighed. "I've come to give you this," he said, bringing forth his hand.

Everyone leaned forward to see a sparkling diamond engagement ring in the palm of his hand.

Young Vexen gasped in surprise. "Marluxia," he began.

Old Vexen turned away, for he knew what was going to happen next. "I do not wish to see this memory, spirit," he said coldly. "Please, take me away."

But Namine did not take his hand. Instead, she turned him towards the couple again.

Marluxia took a deep breath, and continued. "It has come to my attention, Vexen that you care more about your money than you do about me!"

Young Vexen took him by the shoulders. "Of course that's not true!" he said sternly. "I'm saving money so that we can live in luxury! It's just…taking a little time…"

Marluxia pulled away. "But I don't want your money!" he exclaimed. "I wanted you!"

Young Vexen nearly laughed. "But what is love without something profitable?" he said.

Marluxia shook his head bitterly. "Your heart has hardened, Vexen," he said. "And I want no part of it!"

He pressed the engagement ring into Young Vexen's hand, and started to march away.

Old Vexen ran forward. "Marluxia, wait!" he shouted, even though she couldn't hear him. He reached for his arm, but his hand merely passed through it like a fog. Angry, he turned to Young Vexen, and shook his fist at him. "What is the matter with you?" he cried madly. "Go after him!" Tears swelled up in his eyes as his past life failed to run forward.

Namine winced. "Ooooh," she said. "Rejected!"

Vexen turned to her, a look of pure sadness on his wrinkled face. Namine cleared her throat. "Umm, we should be going," she said. "There's still one more memory I need to show you."

A few moments later, they entered the shop in which Vexen worked in presently. Inside, a middle-aged Vexen sat behind an empty counter, alongside his old companion, Zexion.

Young-ish Vexen grinned as he counted their money. "Look how much profit we've made today, Mr. Zexion!" he said happily. "Almost enough to buy a second house!"

Zexion nodded, but stared off into the distance, as if distracted by something else. Finally, he slid off of his stool, and grabbed his hat and coat. "I think I shall leave early for the day," he said. "I…I'm not feeling very well."

Young-ish Vexen did not look up from counting his cash. "Alright then, suit yourself!" he said.

Zexion slowly started to head out the door, but stopped halfway there. He gasped, and clutched his chest as his knees gave way. "V-Vexen!" he breathed, and collapsed to the floor with a THUMP.

Vexen immediately ran to his side, trying to revive him with face slaps. "Zexion!" he cried. "Zexion!"

The room became dead silent as everyone realized the death of his employee. Old Vexen sighed and held back tears. "He was my only friend," he said.

Namine, realizing that their tour was about over, snapped her fingers, and the scene vanished.

Vexen opened his eyes, and realized that he was back in his house, in his hard armchair. Turning this way and that, he noticed that the room was almost empty, except for a lit candle standing next to him, wax dripping as if it had been burning for hours.

Vexen reached for his candle extinguisher, and was just about to put it out when the fire transformed into the Ghost of Christmas Past.

"I told you," said the ghostly flame. "These were the shadows of things that have been. They are what they are, do not blame me!"

Angry with the gentle spirit, Vexen took his extinguisher cap, and pressed in down upon the small light, pressing himself into darkness.

_Dong! Dong!_

Vexen woke with a start as he realized that he had fallen asleep again, only this time he was back in his own home.

He looked at the clock; it was 2-o-clock, meaning it was time to be visited by the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Vexen sat there waiting, expecting the worst; but the ghost did not appear in front of him like the last one.

Puzzled and tired still, Vexen fixed himself to go back to sleep, when he heard laughter coming from the bathroom. "Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

Interested, Vexen quietly slipped on his slippers, and crept into the next room, and gasped for the third time that day.

Instead of the tiny latrine he always had, the room had been transformed into a room the size of a grand ballroom, with bright golden wallpaper and a glorious Christmas tree.

In the center of the room lay a pile of food that nearly reached the ceiling. Turkeys, chickens, fish, bread, cheese, ham, corn, grapes, apples, potatoes, cranberries—all the food you would have an expensive Christmas feast.

On top of the pile sat the source of the boisterous laughter; a tall man wearing a soft, velvet red bathrobe with gold and green sequence on the sleeves and collar. On his head he wore a prominent Santa hat.

He laughed again. "Why, hello there Mr. Vexen, and a Merry Christmas to you!"

Vexen, still mesmerized by the mountains of delicious food, swallowed hard and managed to mumble a quiet, "Umm...bah humbug?"

The man laughed again. "Ho-ho-ho! Bah humbug, you say? Why, it's Christmas time! A time for love, merriment, joy, peace on Earth; good will toward men!" He snapped his fingers, and a large bottle of fancy wine appeared in his hand. Instead of pouring himself a glass, he put his lips to the bottle, and drank it down in gulps.

Vexen, with no doubt in his mind that this man was more than a little drunk, stepped forward. "I assume that you are the Ghost of Christmas Present?"

The Ghost of Christmas Present laughed again, to the extent of which Vexen really wished he would stop. "No need to be so formal, my good man!" shouted the spirit. "Friends call me Luxord!"

Luxord undid the belt that held his robe together, revealing a forest of blonde chest hair. He threw the robe-belt down to Vexen. "Touch my robe!" he shouted happily.

Vexen's face turned bright red with embarrassment. "I-I'd rather we just remain friends, thank you!" he called back.

Luxord laughed again, and threw down a pear, which hit Vexen on the head.

"Ow!" muttered Vexen, rubbing the lump on his scull which had just developed. He frowned at the ghost, but eventually gave in and wrapped his hand around Luxord's robe-belt.

Laughing his ho-ho-hos, Luxord snapped his fingers, and the group suddenly appeared in town square, where everybody was hustling and bustling in order to get ready for Christmas.

Luxord, now carrying a large torch in one hand, motioned at the crowds of people as they walked to a particular destination. "You see these poor folk?" he said, pointing. "They have no money, no riches, and yet they still provide for large families during the holiday season."

Vexen watched as women bought food at the local grocer; he watched with slight ease and delight as father and son together carried large pine trees into their small homes; and he admired the choir as they stood and sang Christmas carols, their noses red with cold.

Luxord glanced at Vexen suspiciously. "You're frowning. Why?" he said.

Vexen looked away. "It's just...I've never contributed to any of these poor singers and workers," he said. "And I think I should've."

The spirit suddenly stopped in front of a particular cottage with cute green shutters and a small chimney. The two of them silently walked through the front door, even though no being could see them.

Inside, Mr. Axel's wife was running around in her kitchen like a madman, cutting carrots and dicing onions and baking bread.

A small girl with red hair came running up, her eyes wide with excitement. "Mother, mother!" she shouted.

She did not look up from her continuous chopping. "Kairi, can't it wait? I'm trying to get the feast ready before your father comes home!"

Kairi shook her head, her small body bouncing up and down with joy she couldn't possibly contain. "But mother, I just saw Xion coming up the hill!"

Mrs. Axel stopped what she was doing. "Xion?" she cried. "Where is she?" She frantically wiped her hands on her apron.

As if on cue, Xion burst through the door, snow flying off of her hair and clothes. "Here I am, mother!" she cried happily.

"Xion!" her mother cried, scooping her up in a big hug. She seemed to be asking a million questions. "How are you? How's the factory? Are you cold? Are you ill? Are you safe? Is there anyone else with you? Please stop interrupting darling I can't even fit in a complete sentence..."

"Hey!" shouted a small boy with silver hair. "I thought I just saw father coming!"

Mrs. Axel looked out the window herself, and gasped. "Riku's right! Everyone be very quiet!"

Kairi grabbing onto Xion's sleeve. "Come on! You must hide!" She pushed her sister under the table.

Vexen looked at Luxord, confused. "But why are they...?"

Luxord pushed his finger against Vexen's lips before he could finish his sentence. "Shhhhh..." he whispered.

The door burst open, and Axel entered, carrying a medium-sized package under his arm. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"

Kairi and Riku ran up and grabbed each of Axel's legs. "Daddy, daddy!" they cried happily.

Mrs. Axel came running as well. "Axel, dearest darling!" she greeted, nearly knocking him over with her wild embrace.

Axel gave his wife a loving hug. "Hello, Roxas dear!" he said.

Vexen's heart melted as he watched the family's display of affection.

Axel continued to smile. "Where's Xion? Is she coming?" he asked hopefully.

Roxas put on a face of sadness and sighed like an actress. "I'm afraid she can't make it this year," she said.

Axel's face fell. "She...she's not coming? On Christmas day?" he said, on the brink of tears.

Xion burst out from underneath the dinner table. "Hello, father!" she yelled.

Axel's face lit up at the sight of his eldest daughter. "Xion! You were here the whole time!" He gave her a warm, fatherly hug. "I'm so glad you could make it..."

"Isn't everyone forgetting about me?" shouted a small voice from the top of the stairs.

Everyone turned to see a small boy leaning on the top of the stairs, his spiky brown hair matted down from taking a previous nap.

Axel detached his legs from his other children, and ran up the stairs to give the boy a hug. "How could we ever forget about you, Sora?" he said softly in his ear.

Vexen watched in sadness as Axel helped the crippled boy down the stairs, setting him down gently on the ground. His father then gave the boy his crutch to help him walk by himself. (There weren't any crutches small enough for him, so his father made one himself. It worked well, but its shape oddly resembled a house key.)

While the other children were showing Sora the talented group of choir singers by their window, Axel helped his wife set the table.

"How was he in church earlier today?" Roxas asked.

Axel smiled warmly at the memory. "As good as gold, and even better," he said. "Somehow he gets thoughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest things you ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple..."

His voice trembled as he continued, while Roxas was desperately trying to hold back sobs.

"And...And it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see..."

Both had stopped trying to set the table long ago, and were now just standing there, utensils and napkins still in their hands.

Before they could mention it anymore, Sora and the others came back into the room. "Mother, father, you should have heard them singing!" cried Sora, his face bright and happy. "It's beautiful!"

"Why, I'm sure it was," said Roxas, who made a fast recovery. "Come on then, let's all sit down for dinner!"

Soon everyone was sitting down at the table, talking amongst themselves. Axel finally unveiled the package, which happened to be a small chicken, just barely big enough to feed the entire family.

But before they family could start stuffing their faces, Axel tapped his fork against his glass to get everyone's attention.

Everyone turned respectfully to the head of the house as he prepared to speak. "Everyone," said Axel. "I would like to propose a toast!"

The whole family raised their glasses high into the air. Axel smiled. "To Mr. Vexen, for providing us with this lovely meal! If he weren't around, then we wouldn't have a feast to sit around!"

Vexen's mouth gaped wide open as he realized that this poor family was toasting him on Christmas day, when he had acted so poorly towards his employee...

Roxas set down his glass in protest. "Merry Christmas to him? Ha!" He shook his head bitterly. "If I were you, I'd have a few other words I'd like to say to him..."

Axel cleared his throat nervously, his eyes motioning towards the others sitting at the table. "Umm, dearest, what about the children? Christmas day?"

Roxas looked at his happy children, and sighed. "Well, alright! Merry Christmas Mr. Vexen, wherever you may be!"

Out of everyone sitting at that table, Sora was the one who raised his glass the highest. "God bless us, everyone!" he shouted. Everyone around him laughed and smiled.

A single tear escaped Vexen's eye. "Spirit," he said softly. "Will Sora..."

The ghost's face went dark, and for the first time in this whole story, he was not laughing. "I see a vacant seat in the poor chimney corner," he said darkly. "And a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."

Vexen whirled around and looked at the ghost, horrified. "No, no! Please, kind spirit, tell me the boy will be spared!"

Luxord did not answer. Instead, he walked out the door. "There is one more family I still need to show you," he said to Vexen.

Vexen, not wanting to leave, followed slowly behind the ghost. After walking farther and farther down the street, they came to a wealthier side of town, where they appeared in front of a grand house, the size of a small mansion.  
>"This is...my nephew's house?" said Vexen. He recognized the wreath on the front door. Since the ghost did not answer, Vexen stepped through the front door and took a look for himself.<p>

In the sitting room by the fire, Demyx and a few friends and family members of his sat in comfy armchairs around the room, while each person had their own glass of Champaign.

Demyx laughed merrily as he seemed to tell his guests a joke. "He said Christmas was a humbug too!" he cried, holding his sides.

Vexen's face fell as he realized that they were laughing at his own words. As the room exploded with laughter, one voice spoke up.

"I'm sure he did!" exclaimed Demyx's wife, Ariel. "That old man does nothing but spends his days counting his money!"

A friend of Demyx's cut in. "Yeah, and he doesn't even spend it, either! He'll just keep saving and saving until the day he dies!"

The room burst into laughter again. Finally, Demyx sighed. "Now Xigbar," he said to the man who spoke before. He turned to his wife. "Ariel," he said adoringly. "I still can't help but feel bad for him."

Everyone in the room, including Vexen, stared at him. Demyx plowed on. "Although I've never really had a decent conversation with the man, my mother seemed to love him very much. And even though I never got to meet my mother, my guess is that under all that money, there is a true and honest man underneath."

He raised his glass into the air. "To Mr. Vexen!" he shouted. "I hope he's having a Merry Christmas at his own home."

"Even though he decided to miss an extraordinary party like this!" said Ariel. The people around them laughed, but toasted Vexen nonetheless.

Back outside again, Vexen shook his head in wonder. "All these people...are toasting me..." He looked at Luxord, who was staring off into deep space. For the first time, Vexen realized that the spirit's blond hair was now a wispy grey, and his face had bore wrinkles.

"Spirit?"

"...My time here is ending fast," said Luxord. He turned to Vexen sadly. "Look now," he said. He undid the last of the buttons on his robe, and opened the skirt.

There, clinging to each of the ghost's legs clung two children: a boy and a girl with hungry, cold, dead looks on their faces. Their hands resembled claws and their teeth were pointed and jagged.

Vexen stepped back at the sight of them, appalled at their monstrous appearance. He choked. "You have very...nice looking children," he managed to say.

Luxord shook his head. "These are not mine, they are Man's. The girl is want, and the boy is ignorance. Beware them both, but most of all, beware the boy. For he forbids doom, unless it can be erased! Do you deny it?" The spirit suddenly became very angry with each word he spoke.

"Uhh...n-no!" cried Vexen. "I cannot!"

"Exactly!" screamed the ghost. He suddenly grew taller and taller until he towered over the poor old man.

Vexen gathered his strength. "But, kind spirit—"

"Kind? Kind!" Luxord laughed, but it was a cold, dark laugh, instead of his usual happy laugh. "I am the Ghost of Christmas Present! I am no 'kind spirit'!"

Vexen went down on his knees. "But Luxord, there is still so very much I wish to see! Won't you show me—"

"Never!" screamed the ghost. He exploded in a burst of gold and green, leaving Vexen sitting alone in his chair again, back in his own home.

_Dong! Dong! Dong!_

Vexen woke with a bad taste in his mouth and a pounding headache. Dreading, he slowly got up out of his chair...only to see someone peering over the side.

"Aaah!" Vexen nearly fell out of his chair. A tall, slender figure in a black coat stood over him, a hood concealing their face.

Vexen took a deep breath, and continued. "Am I in the presence of...the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come?"

The hooded figure paused, then reached up and pulled the hood off of their face. Vexen almost gasped as he realized that the ghost he had feared most of all—was a young woman.

She sneered at him. "You may call me Larxene, if you wish," she said reluctantly.

He nodded. "Larxene," started Vexen. "I fear you more than any of the other ghosts who have visited me this evening. But if I wish to live out the rest of my existence as a changed man, then I feel it is necessary to follow you into the future. This is right?"

Larxene rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever," she said. She clenched her hands into fists, and knives appeared between her knuckles. Carefully pulling the hood back over her face, she slowly walked towards a wall, took a few steps back, and ripped a large hole in the wallpaper. But instead of a hard surface behind it, the torn wallpaper flapped lightly in a breeze coming from the dark abyss displayed beyond.

As Larxene motioned for him to step through, Vexen couldn't help but take a look around his room, as if it were the last time he would see his own home.

Finally, he and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come stepped through the hole in the wall.

As they stepped through, they appeared in the midst of a dark, sketchy alleyway. Vexen looked on as a suspicious looking old man came to greet a crazy looking teenage girl.

The old man came up close to her. "Have you got it?" he said.

"Sshhh!" she snapped. "Would you pipe down, Cid? There are people all over these slums who are dying to get their hands on supplies like this!"

"Supplies?" said Vexen. Larxene gave him a glare, and Vexen shut up.

The girl reached behind her back, and took out an expensive pair of pants and a fancy shirt. She handed them over to the old man, who looked at them in wonder. "You got these...?"

"Straight off the dead man's body!" she said proudly. "Something tells me he won't need them anymore!"

The old man chuckled in a creepy manor. "Yuffie, you're brilliant," he said.

Yuffie blushed. "But I haven't even shown you the best part!" She reached behind her again and took out a comforter and some bed sheets. "Their still warm!" she said, smiling.

Vexen couldn't help but shudder. They were stealing from a dead man! He turned to look at Larxene, only to realize that she had continued to walk on.

Quickly following after her, Vexen paused as he saw two men having a conversation.

"So, it's true then? The old man's really...?"

"Yep, as dead as a doornail. Apparently he passed last night!"

"Finally! It's about time!"

"Yeah...say, how's your wife?"

"Oh, yeah, she's okay..."

Vexen frowned. Were they talking about the same man? Pondering these questions in his head, he ran ahead to catch up with the spirit, who had already made it to the graveyard.

He caught up to her as she stopped. Vexen struggled to speak, but he was so out of breath that he found it hard. "Why...spirit...are we stopping...in a..." He paused as he saw what was in front of him.

Axel, Roxas, and their children stood in front of a small gravestone already covered with flowers.

Vexen counted the children, and almost stopped breathing. "Sora..." he mumbled.

For indeed, the family was still mourning the death of their youngest child. Roxas' lip trembled as he stood in front of his son's grave, and the tears overflowed. Axel reached over and held his wife. The rest of their children joined into the hug.

Vexen turned to Larxene. "Larxene, the people in town, they weren't talking about..."

Larxene shook her head. Vexen let out a small sigh of relief, but paused still. "Then...why did you show me the pickpockets? Or the men in town?"

Slowly, Larxene waltzed over to another gravestone, one without flowers and people. In fact, the gravestone itself was placed in at an awkward angle, as if no one cared about its placement.

Vexen looked at the gravestone, confused. "So, who was this man?" he asked.

Larxene rolled her eyes again, and pointed to the words on the stone.

HERE LIES MR. VEXEN. MAY HE CONTINUE TO SPEND HIS MONEY WISELY

Horrified, Vexen leaped back and looked at the spirit. "No, no, Spirit!" he cried. "Please tell me this is not my fate!"

Larxene did not say anything.

Vexen went down on his knees in a prayer. "Please, I am not the man I once was! I have changed!"

Larxene still did not say anything.

"I promise, I will always honor Christmas in my heart from this day forward, and I shall always give to the needy, and I will treat my employees better, and I promise that this future will be altered, I swear!"

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come crumbled down to the ground in a heap, and vanished from sight.

_Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!_

Vexen shot up out of his chair and looked around. To his delight, it was Christmas morning at last.

Vexen leaped out of his chair and began dancing around the room like a loony, doing cartwheels and attempting to do back-flips.

He ran over to his window and opened it, the morning breeze touching his face like it never had before.

He looked down at the choir below him, singing "Jingle Bells". "Hello there!" he shouted.

The whole choir simultaneously stopped singing and looked at him in worry, expecting him to throw something at them like he usually did.

But instead, Vexen smiled. "Merry Christmas to you all!" he shouted.

Smiles crept upon their faces as they realized that they were being greeted. "A Merry Christmas to you too, sir!" they shouted.

Humming merry Christmas tunes, Vexen grabbed his robe and slippers, and bolted out the door.

Once outside, he crashed into a little girl carrying a basket of flowers.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Vexen, sir!" stammered the girl nervously. She slowly started to back away.

Vexen got up, and looked the girl in the eye. "Young lady, what is your name?" he asked.

The girl gulped. "Umm, Aerith, sir," he said.

"Do you know what day it is, Aerith?"

Aerith twisted the basket in her hands. "It's...Sunday?" she said, knowing that saying "Christmas" would bring her an instantaneous death.

Vexen laughed like the Ghost of Christmas Present. "No, silly! It's Christmas day!" He laughed again.

The girl looked at him strangely. Vexen stopped laughing, and pressed twenty gold coins into the girl's hand. "Here," he said. "I want you to go to the butcher's shop, and get the biggest turkey you can find with these coins!"

Aerith's eyes grew to the size of watermelons. "You mean...the Prized Turkey?" she asked.

Vexen pushed her along. "Yes, yes, yes! And once you get it, I need you to send it to this address:" He whispered the address into the girl's ear.

Aerith gasped. "Why sir, that's the residence of Mr. Axel and his family!"

Vexen chuckled. "Exactly!" he said, giving the girl a final push. "And make sure the butcher keeps the extra change! Is that clear, young lady?"

The girl nodded excitedly. "Yes, it most certainly is clear, Mr. Vexen!" She ran off in the direction of the butcher's shop, the coins jingling in her pocket.

Vexen rubbed his hands together, a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. "I'll have the girl send it to Axel, and I'll make sure it's an anonymous source, too!"

Vexen ran off in another direction, wishing the townsfolk a Merry Christmas as he went.

A few hours later, Vexen marched into the household of his nephew and niece. Creeping up the stairs, he burst through the door of the sitting room, where the couple was still preparing for their guests. "Merry Christmas!" he shouted, for those were his new favorite words.

Demyx jumped back in fright, while Ariel screamed. "Who's there?" shouted Demyx.

"It is me, your Uncle Vexen!" shouted Vexen. He walked farther into the room so that they could both see him. "I was wondering if...it would be alright with you if I spent Christmas here?"

Both Demyx and Ariel went silent as they looked at each other. "Of course!" they both shouted.

So for the first time in many years, Vexen attended a party with friends and family, laughed at good jokes, and ate and drank until he felt like he would burst.

The next day, Vexen came into work on time, and noticed that Axel would be late. He smiled to himself as a plan formed into his head about what he was going to say when his employee got there.

Axel burst through the door an hour late. "Mr. Vexen!" he cried. "I...I'm so..."

"You're so late, that's what!" snapped Vexen, pretending to be his old self. He stood up and marched over to the poor young man. "I hope you know that I am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer!"

Axel started pleading with him. "Please sir; it's once a year sir! It won't happen again, sir!"

"No, it won't!" growled Vexen. "Because...I'm going to raise your salary!" he said, switching to a happy grin.

Axel continued to plead. "But please sir, I have a wife and children and what did you just say?" He trailed off, wondering what exactly just happened.

Vexen gave him a hearty slap on the back. "Merry Christmas Axel, and Merry Christmas to your family as well!"

Axel's surprise turned into joy. "Why, Merry Christmas Mr. Vexen!" he said happily.

And so, from that day forth, Vexen was always willing to give charity to those who needed it, he spent more time with his nephew, he became a second father to Sora (who did not die), and Christmas became his favorite holiday of the year.

The End.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked the first story, and sorry for cutting out some characters and famous lines (you know, the charity collectors, the choir in the beginning, the whole "decrease the surplus population" line, the whole "boiled in pudding, stake of holly" line, you get the jest). <strong>

**Hope you loved the pairings, too! (I couldn't think of anyone good to pair Demyx with, so I just put him with Ariel. You know, he likes water; she likes water; they make a nice couple!)**

**Please R/R!**


	3. Always in Your Dreams

**Warning: This chapter contains Cleon, Aqua/Vanitas, young boys wearing tutus, Spandex, and gumdrops. Yes, gumdrops.**

* * *

><p><span>Always in Your Dreams<span>

"Hey, get out of the way Aqua!"

"Move it, Terra! You're such a slowpoke!"

"Ow!"

Aqua and her brother Terra struggled to catch a glimpse of the Christmas tree in the other room through the keyhole.

"Stop pushing!"

"I'm not pushing!"

"Yes you are!"

"Now, children!"

Aqua and Terra whirled around and saw their mother standing there will his arms full of Christmas decorations.

"Honestly, the party's about to start, and all you two can do is argue!" their mother said, putting up the decorations.

"Sweetheart, can you fix my tie?" called their father, his spiky brown hair not even combed yet. "I want to look my absolute best for this year's Christmas party!"

"Well, of course, Leon darling!" called their mother. He ran over and helped their father straighten his tie.

"Thank you, Cloud dearest," he said. Aqua and Terra nearly gagged at the sight of their parently love.

_Ding Dong!_

"Oh my!" screamed Cloud, dropping all the decorations. "The guests are already here!" He hopped up and down, suddenly very frantic, then froze, and fell to the ground unconscious.

Leon sighed, then grabbed Cloud's legs and used them to drag him out of the way. "Can you take care of the guests?" he groaned under Cloud's weight.

Aqua and Terra nodded excitedly. Together, they opened the grand front doorway, allowing floods of guests to pour in.

And man, there were a lot of guests. Friends, family—even people they didn't even know showed up! There was laughter, food, drink, toys, singing, and dancing.

Especially Aqua; she loved to dance. Whenever she had the spare time, she would put on her ballet shoes, and dance to imaginary music in her head.

While the party was still young, the doorbell rang. Leon, being the man of the house (err...sort of...) went to go open the door.

"Come in, come in!" they heard him exclaim from the foyer. Everyone watched as Leon waltzed in with another guest: a man wearing a mysterious black cloak.

"Everyone!" he shouted happily. "Eraqus is here!"

Immediately, children came running up to the man, clinging onto his legs and arms. Some children stayed away; he was an intimidating looking man, with unusually long black hair and a scar running across his face.

But most odd about him, was that he was a toy maker, and a magnificent one at that. His toys, usually very large in size, always seemed to come to life. There were even rumors that the man was a wizard in disguise.

Aqua came running. "Uncle Eraqus!" she cried, giving him a warm embrace. Terra stayed back; he thought that Eraqus was a weirdo.

Uncle Eraqus laughed. "My dear niece!" he cried, returning her hug. There was no doubt about it; Aqua was his favorite.

Suddenly, Uncle Eraqus brought his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle that got everyone's attention. "Bring 'em in, boys!" he shouted out the door.

Two burly men came in carrying two very large boxes wrapped in colorful paper and tied off with bows. Grunting, they set them down on the ground with a THUMP.

Eraqus reached into his pocket and presented two gold pieces. "Here you go," he said to each of them. "And thank you for bringing these in, Dylan, Aeleus."

Dylan and Aeleus walked away with their meager salary. "We don't get paid enough for this," muttered Dylan.

As a crowd gathered, Uncle Eraqus undid the ribbons on the first box and stood back. The box opened, and a life-sized windup ballerina leaped out, and started to dance. Everyone ooed and ahed as she twirled and jumped like a real dancer.

Uncle Eraqus then undid the second present, and a life-sized windup soldier marched out, his musket pointing straight up into the air.

After he had put the toys back in their boxes, Eraqus went up to Aqua in private. "I have a special present for you," he said, winking.

He reached into his coat, and pulled out a smaller box with paper and ribbons. Excited, Aqua ripped off the paper and opened the box, where a tiny wooden man lay on velvet cushions.

"A nutcracker," said Uncle Eraqus. "Someone to keep you company."

Aqua gasped with happiness as she carefully took the nutcracker out of his box. "Thank you!" she cried. "He's beautiful."

When Aqua wasn't looking, Terra crept up from behind her and took the doll right out of her hands. "Big deal," he said. He took out a walnut and stuffed it into his mouth. "Let's see him in action!"

"Terra, stop!" cried Aqua. Terra cranked and cranked, but the walnut wouldn't break.

"Humph, it doesn't even work!" he muttered. He threw the nutcracker against the wall, and walked away.

"Nutcracker..." Aqua ran over and picked him up off the floor, but it was too late—his face had been damaged badly.

Eraqus came over and inspected the damage. "Here," he said. Using bandages, he wrapped the doll's face so that it looked almost like a mummy. "With a little rest, he'll be better in no time!"

Aqua hugged her uncle. "Thank you, Uncle!" she said. She held the nutcracker close. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll always take care of you."

"Awwwkward..." whispered Terra.

Aqua turned. "What did you just say?" she asked coldly.

Terra, who was awfully frightened of his sister in general, backed away slowly. "N-Nothing, ma'am!" he whimpered.

Aqua smiled and went back to cuddling her new nutcracker.

Pretty soon, the party came to a stop, the guests left, and the children went to sleep—except for Aqua. She was so excited about her new nutcracker that she crept out of bed and went downstairs, just to see him.

When she got downstairs, she found him lying in a doll sized bed, the bandages still wrapped over his face. She smiled and stroked the bandages, but then realized that she was very sleepy.

So she lay down next to the doll sized bed, and fell fast asleep.

_Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong..._

Aqua woke with a start as the clock chimed midnight. Not remembering where she was, she looked around the room, and realized that she had grown smaller—or that everything else had grown bigger!

The Christmas tree, which was pretty tall in general, seemed to tower above her now, and the toys under the tree were nearly her size, and so was her nutcracker!

Without warning, the nutcracker suddenly shifted into consciousness. "Ahhh..." he moaned, putting his wooden hands to his bandages. "My face..."

Aqua gasped. The nutcracker heard the noise and turned to the sound of the noise. "Geez, I'm sorry!" he said sincerely. "I didn't mean to scare you."

Aqua, touched by his words, calmed down and gave him a better glance. He was tall, slightly muscular even, with shiny black boots, white tights, and a red jacket with polished gold buttons.

"I-It's alright," she said. "My name's Aqua. How does your face feel?"

The nutcracker groaned again, rubbing his face. "It still burns," he said. "At this rate, I don't know how I'm going to be able to defeat Xehanort now."

Aqua happened to notice that he didn't mention his name, but she was even more puzzled by what he just said. "Xehanort?" she said. "Who's—"

"Hello there, child!" called a creeper-ish voice.

Aqua and the nutcracker whirled around to see an old man standing with his hands clasped behind his back. His crazy gold eyes frightened Aqua, but she gathered her strength and looked at him in the eye. "Who are you?" she asked.

The old man chuckled. "Why, I'm Xehanort, of course!" He snapped his fingers, and a whole army of mice appeared at his side. "And these are just a few friends of mine, right fellahs?"

The mouse army laughed in unison, making Aqua shudder.

The nutcracker snapped his wooden fingers, and a whole army of toys came to life and came to his aid. He unsheathed his sword. "Surrender, Xehanort!" he cried.

Xehanort unsheathed his jagged sword. "Never, you're Majesty!"

Aqua looked at the nutcracker, confused. "You're...Majesty?"

Before he could answer, Xehanort charged forward, and a battle commenced.

Aqua ran around, stuck as to what she was supposed to do. Something whizzed past her head. Looking behind her, she saw that some of the dolls were firing gumdrops from a toy cannon.

"Here!" shouted a Teddy Bear. "Use this!" He threw her a house key to use as a weapon.

Aqua shrugged, and plunged deep into battle, slicing this way and that, using moves that she didn't even know she had.

Once all of the mice were dead, Aqua noticed that the nutcracker was still fighting against Xehanort, but he couldn't see through the bandages.

Xehanort laughed and kicked him in the stomach, making him drop to the ground. He raised his sword above the nutcracker's head, ready to give the final blow.

Panicking, Aqua reached down, took off her shoe, and threw it at Xehanort, knocking him off balance.

The nutcracker saw his opportunity. Quickly, he got up off the floor, and slashed through Xehanort's heart, killing him instantly.

All the toys clapped and cheered in excitement, for they had won the battle! The nutcracker looked around, searching for Aqua. "Aqua!" he cried. "Aqua, where are you?"

He looked down at the floor. Aqua lay at his feet, unconscious yet pretty. (Apparently, she takes after her mother in more ways than one, *wink* *wink*.)

The nutcracker sighed, grabbed Aqua by her legs, and used them to hoist her onto the doll-sized bed.

Then he climbed on, stood at the head, raised his sword, and the bed slowly started to float away, into the starry night sky.

Aqua reawakened a few hours later, and jumped as she saw her new surroundings. Instead of being back at home, she found herself in the middle of a snowy wood, with trees that were proportional to her size. She gasped. "Where am I?" she breathed.

"You're safe in the Peppermint Woods," said a familiar voice.

Aqua sat straight up, and came face to face with a handsome young man with spiky black hair and hazel eyes.

She frowned. "Who are you?" she asked.

The man smiled. "Aqua, don't you recognize me?" he said. "It's me; you're nutcracker!"

Aqua observed him more carefully, and found that what he said was true. He was wearing the same clothes (although his pants had been changed to stretchy Spandex so that he could leap and bound more freely), and his tone of voice was the same. Somehow, he gave her the same warm, homey feeling that the nutcracker had.

"N-Nutcracker?" she said. "But...how...?"

The man shook his head. "Xehanort cast an evil spell on me, turning my body into wood. But since you helped me defeat him, I have been set free. Thank you." He reached out his hand. "Now you may formally call me, Prince Vanitas, or just Van for short."

Aqua giggled. "Why, of course, Van," she said. She took his hand as he helped her up on her feet.

As they walked down the snowy path, Aqua became so absorbed in looking at his gorgeous face, that she didn't even know where they were going. "Umm...where are we going, exactly?" she said.

"To my kingdom," said Vanitas. "The Land of Sweets."

After walking for a long time, they finally saw the palace gate in front of them. At the gate, someone stood there, waiting to greet them.

Aqua cocked her head. "Who's that?" she asked.

Vanitas held back a snicker. "That's the Sugar Plum Fairy," he said. "She always waits at the gate for me while I'm gone."

Aqua could feel her blood start to boil as she pictured the most likely beautiful fairy greeting the prince at the gate everyday. But as they got closer and closer to the palace, Aqua realized that she had nothing to worry about.

"Welcome," said the Sugar Plum Fairy, who was less than enthusiastic. Aqua desperately tried not to laugh as she was greeted by a boy only a few years younger than her, wearing a purple tutu and a tiara with plums hanging off of it. A purple sparkling wand was used to open the gate as he led them through. "Right this way," he moaned.

Aqua almost decided not to ask, but asked anyways. "Why...?"

"He lost a bad bet," said the prince, smirking. He called up to their tour guide, "Hey Ventus, I want to see you tiptoe like a real fairy!" He laughed.

Ventus growled, and started to tiptoe as he led the guests to the sparkling crystal hall. "I hate my life," he muttered.

He guided them up to the front of the hall, where they took their seats upon a large golden throne big enough to fit two people. Sighing, Ventus grabbed a sparkling purple bullhorn, climbed up on a sparkling purple stool, and shouted. "Let the festivities begin!"

All the people of the Land of Sweets came running in through the front door, all wearing gorgeous costumes looking like sweets.

First, a beautifully dressed couple did a ballet routine called the "Dance of Hot Chocolate".

Then a mysterious belly dancer leaped in and did the "Dance of Coffee".

After that, twin girls wearing fancy silken costumes from China did the "Dance of Tea" while jumping out of an enormous teapot.

A tall woman wearing a very poofy hoopskirt came in, named Mother Ginger. She smiled, lifted her hoopskirt, and a band of mischievous children jumped out and did a merry dance.

The last of the performers were a group of graceful women who did the "Waltz of the Flowers". It was so catchy and fun, that even Vanitas and Aqua danced along with them. (Vanitas in his Spandex...ugh...)

After they sat back down on their throne, Aqua sighed and rested her head on Vanitas' shoulder. "What a beautiful place this is," she said. "I wish I could come back here all the time."

"But you can," said Vanitas, giving her hand a squeeze. "You can always come and visit this place in your dreams."

Finally, as the festivities ended, it was time for Aqua to go home. She and Vanitas stepped into a magic sleigh already prepared for them. As they flew off into the sky, the people of the Land of Sweets whooped and hollered as they waved them goodbye.

They next morning, Aqua woke and found Vanitas in his nutcracker form lying right next to her—his face in perfect condition.

Aqua smiled and hugged her nutcracker close, remembering the evening she had had at the Land of Sweets. And she knew, deep in her heart, that she would most definitely be visiting again soon.

The End.

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><p><strong>(Heehee...Microsoft Word thinks that whenever I type in, The End, that I have made a fragment and that I should consider revising...wow...)<strong>

**Please R/R**


	4. What Christmas Is Really All About

**Okay for all of you haters out there who don't believe that this is a "classic Christmas story", it totally is. Just sayin'. **

**Warning: This chapter contains Demyx/Zexion, the implication of a creepy man sneaking into your house, and A LOT OF RHYMING! You have been warned. **

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><p><span>What Christmas Is Really All About<span>

Every person down in Yuletideville liked Christmas a lot, but one scientist who lived just north of Yuletideville did not.

This man hated Christmas; the whole Christmas season, but please don't ask why because no one quite knows the reason. It could be perhaps that his shoes were too tight; it could be his head wasn't screwed on just right.

But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But whatever the reason, his heart or his shoes, he stood there on Christmas Eve, hating all the citizens in the town below. Staring down from his cave with a sour, grouchy brow at the warm, lighted windows below in their town.

For he knew every person down in Yuletideville beneath was busy now, hanging up holiday wreaths.

His lab assistant, who was his only companion, walked up and stood next to him as he glared down at the town below. "Awww," he said. "Is Zexy feeling a little depressed about Christmas time?" he asked.

Zexion growled and continued to stare. "Demyx, you know I hate it when you mention that word," he said.

Demyx smiled mischievously. "What, you mean...Christmas?" he said, grinning.

Zexion's eye twitched. "Don't you even..."

"Christmas! Christmas! Christmas! Chri—Gaah!"

Zexion grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and lifted him up off the ground before he got to say the word again. "Listen you," he said, "they're hanging their stockings," he snarled with a sneer. "Tomorrow is Christmas; it's practically here!"

Then he growled with his cold fingers nervously drumming. "I must find some way to keep Christmas from coming.

"For tomorrow, I know all the girls and boys will wake bright and early. They'll rush for their toys! And then! Oh, the noise! Oh, the noise! Noise! Noise! Noise! There's one thing I hate! All the NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! NOISE!

"And they'll shriek squeaks and squeals, racing 'round on their wheels. They'll dance with jingtinglers tied onto their heels. They'll blow their floofloovers. They'll bang their tartookas. They'll blow their whohoopers. They'll bang their gardookas. They'll spin their trumtookas. They'll slam their slooslunkas. They'll beat their blumbloopas. They'll wham their whowonkas. And they'll play noisy games like zoozittacarzay, a roller-skate type of lacrosse and croquet! And then they'll make ear-splitting noises galooks on their great big electro whocarnio flooks!

Then the people, young and old, will sit down to a feast. And they'll feast! And they'll feast! And they'll FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! FEAST! They'll feast on their pudding, and rare roast beast, raw roast beast is a feast I can't stand in the least!

"And then they'll do something I hate most of all! Every person down in Yuletideville, the tall and the small, they'll stand close together, with Christmas bells ringing. They'll stand hand-in-hand, and those men and women will start singing!"

Zexion shuddered at the thought of it. "And they'll sing! And they'll sing! And they'd SING! SING! SING! SING!" He stomped his foot into the ground so hard that it created a hole.

Demyx squirmed himself free and straightened his hair. "Okaaay," he said. "So, you have a little bit of a Christmas complex; who doesn't?" He cleared his throat and continued. "But that doesn't mean you should stop the holiday for everyone! That's just...well...it's not right!"

But Zexion wasn't listening. "I must stop this whole thing! Why for eighteen years I've put up with it now! I must stop Christmas from coming! But how?"

He started to pace up and down the mountain slope. Up and down, up and down. Demyx tried to intervene, but Zexion kept shooing him away.

Finally, Zexion snapped his fingers together, the corners of his mouth lifted in an awful smile.

"I know just what to do!" Zexion laughed in his throat. "I'll make a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat."

Demyx cocked his head. "You'll do what now?"

Again, Zexion was too absorbed in himself to listen to his assistant's words. He chuckled, and clucked, "What a great nasty trick! With this coat and this hat, I'll look just like Saint Nick!"

And with that, he rushed back into his cave to start working.

Demyx shouted after him, "What are you, Mr. Grouch all of the sudden? What happened to our whole, 'not ruining Christmas' idea? ...And why are you rhyming?" He ran after him, hoping to stop his plan.

_You're a mean one, Mr. Grouch. You really are a heel.  
>You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as an eel.<br>Mr. Grouch! You're a bad banana with a greasy black peel!  
>You're a monster, Mr. Grouch. Your heart's an empty hole.<br>Your brain is full of spiders. You've got garlic in your soul.  
>Mr. Grouch! I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!<em>

"Gaaahhhh!" screamed Demyx. He frowned. "Okay, who let the random boy band into the cave?" he said.

The lead singer of the band shrugged. "We let ourselves in," he said. The rest of the band nodded.

Demyx rolled his eyes. "Okay, well can you show yourselves out? I'm kind of in the middle of stopping an evil scheme right now."

"Sure. Come on, guys," said the leader. The rest of the bad gathered up their music and equipment and started heading out the cave.

"I thought it was good, Xemnas," the drummer said to the leader.

"Aw, thank you Xigbar," said Xemnas, blushing.

Demyx ran over to Zexion, who was still sewing and stitching like he had been hours ago. "So, about this evil plan of yours," started Demyx. "How's it coming along?"

Zexion sewed on the final piece, cut the thread with his teeth, and clapped his hands. "Done!" he cried. He lifted up his handiwork so that Demyx could see.

Demyx raised one eyebrow, his mouth gaping wide open. "A Santa Suit?" he said. "You're going to ruin Christmas...with a Santa Suit?"

Zexion nodded, a crazy look in his eye. "Now all I need is a reindeer!" He looked at Demyx, and another one of his smiles crept onto his face.

Demyx's eye widened as he realized what his master was thinking. "Hooooo no!" he said. "No, no, no! I signed on to this job to help change the world with experiments of scientific nature! I did not sign up to dress up like..."

Zexion's eyes grew so big that the light from outside of the cave shined off of his pupils. He stuck out his lower lip just a little bit, and held out a pair of antlers. Tears formed in his eyes.

Demyx's heart ached. Unlike Zexion, his heart was just the right size, which made him a very vulnerable person. Not to mention, he had always had a little crush on his master, even though he would never admit it.

He gave up and sighed. "Gimme the antlers," he said. Zexion jumped up and down with one of his rare outbursts of joy, and set to work on making the right costume for his new reindeer.

Taking some black thread, he tied the antlers on top of Demyx's head. Then he loaded some bags and some old empty sacks on a ramshackle sleigh and he whistled for his new reindeer.

Then Zexion said "Giddyap!" and the sleigh started down toward the homes where the people lay a-snooze in their town.

All their windows were dark. No one knew he was there. All the people were dreaming sweet dreams without care when he came to the first little house of the square.

Zexion chuckled as he climbed out of the sleigh and onto the roof. "This is the first house," he said. Picking up empty bags, he turned to Demyx (who was half dead from pulling the sled down the hill and across town). "Stay!" he said.

Demyx managed to move his head in a weak nod, even though the animal treatment was very degrading.

Then he slid down the chimney, a rather tight pinch. But if Santa could do it, then so could he. He got stuck only once, for a minute or two.

Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue where the little stockings hung all in a row. "These stockings," he chuckled, "are the first things to go!"  
>Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most unpleasant, around the whole room, and he took every present!<p>

Pop guns, pampoogas, pantookas, and drums! Checkerboards, bizilbigs, popcorn, and plums! And he stuffed them in bags.

Then the Grinch, very nimbly, stuffed all the bags, one by one, up the chimney.

_You're a vile one, Mr. Grouch. You have termites in your smile.  
>You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile.<br>Mr. Grouch! Given the choice between the two of you I'd take the seasick crocodile!  
>You're a rotter, Mr. Grouch. You're the king of sinful sots.<br>Your heart's a dead tomato splotched with moldy purple spots.  
>Mr. Grouch! You're a three decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce!<em>

"What the..." Demyx looked up and saw the boy band from before sitting in the sleigh.

Xemnas put up his hands. "Don't look at me," he said. "He invited us!" He pointed to Zexion, who had just come back up from the chimney, full bags in his arms.

Before anybody could say anything, Zexion had already dumped the full bags into the sleigh, grabbed another batch of empty bags, and headed back down the same chimney.

Then he slunk to the icebox. He took the family's feast! He took their pudding! He took their roast beast!  
>He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash. Why, that man even took the last can of their hash!<br>Then he stuffed all the food up the chimney with glee. "Now," grinned Zexion, "I will stuff up the tree!"

As Zexion was stuffing their Christmas tree into a bag, he heard a small noise behind him, like the cooing of a dove.

Turning, he came face to face with a small girl no more than two years old. "Mr. Santa Clause," she said softly. "Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?"

Zexion almost panicked; what was he supposed to say? But then an idea sparked in his mind, and he smiled as sweetly as he could. "Why, hello child. What is your name?"

"Namine," said the girl, who had begun to suck her thumb.

Zexion smiled again. "Well, little Namine, I just happened to notice that there is a light on this tree that won't light on one side," he lied. "So I'm taking it back to my workshop, and I'll fix it up there, and bring it back here!"

And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head, and he got her a drink, and he sent her to bed.

But as he did, he couldn't help but feel a slight sense of warmth in his heart. Her eyes almost reminded him of Demyx...

Zexion shook his head, and got rid of the thought. There was still so much more work to be done!

And when Namine was in bed with her cup, he crupt to the chimney and stuffed the tree up!  
>Then he went up the chimney himself, the old liar. And the last thing he took was the log for their fire.<br>On their walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire. And the one speck of food that he left in the house was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse.

As he continued on his journey, he did the same thing to the other people's houses, leaving crumbs much too small for the other mouses!

_You nauseate me, Mr. Grouch, with a nauseous super "naus"!  
>You're a crooked dirty jockey and you drive a crooked hoss.<br>Mr. Grouch! Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing with the most disgraceful assortment of rubbish imaginable mangled up in tangled up knots!  
>You're a foul one, Mr. Grouch. You're a nasty-wasty skunk.<br>Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk.  
>Mr. Grouch! The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, "Stink, stank, stunk"!<em>

Demyx groaned and covered his ears with his hands. "Pleaaaaase! Make them stooooppp!" he yelled.

Zexion laughed. "Don't worry, Demyx! We're almost done here anyways!"

It was quarter of dawn. All the men and women still a-bed, all the families still a-snooze, when he packed up his sled, packed it up with their presents, their ribbons, their wrappings, their snoof and their fuzzles, their tringlers and trappings!

When he was done, he brought the sleigh, which was stuffed with goodies, to the very edge of Mount Crumpet, where he planned to dump it! "Pooh-pooh to them!" he was horribly humming. "They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming! They're just waking up! I know just what they'll do! Their mouths will hang open a minute or two then the citizens down in Yuletideville will all cry boo-hoo!

"And that is a noise," said Zexion, "that I simply must hear!" So he leaned forward and put his hand to his ear.

And he did hear a sound rising over the snow. It started in low, then it started to grow.

_Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays  
>Welcome Christmas! Come this way<br>Fahoo forays, dahoo dorays  
>Welcome Christmas, Christmas Day<br>Welcome, welcome, fahoo ramus  
>Welcome, welcome, dahoo damus<br>Christmas Day is in our grasp  
>So long as we have hands to clasp<em>

But this sound wasn't sad! Why, this sound sounded glad! Every being down in Yuletideville, the tall and the small, was singing without any presents at all!  
>He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same!<p>

And Zexion, with his frozen feet ice-cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling. "How could it be so? It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes, or bags!"

He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then Zexion thought of something he hadn't before: _Maybe Christmas_, he thought, _doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!_

Zexion grinned as the idea finally dawned on him at last. He turned to Demyx to tell him his discovery. "Demyx, you were right all along!" he cried. "Christmas isn't about the packages, boxes, bags, ribbons, or any of—Demyx!"

Demyx clawed at the mountain surface as the sleigh slowly started to fall over the cliff. "Zexy!" he cried frantically. "Help me!"

Zexion panicked. "Hang on!" he yelled. He ran forward and dived for Demyx's hand as the sleigh fell back.

Holding on tight, Zexion pulled and pulled, until he finally pulled so hard that Demyx fell out of his harness completely!

They gasped as the sleigh made its final wobble as it went over the side and out of view. Zexion ran forward as fast as he could, the snow on the ground making it hard for him to move. In a desperate attempt to stop the sleigh from crashing to the ground below, Zexion jumped over the side and grabbed onto one of the sleigh's ridges as it slid down the cliffside.

Demyx jumped forward and grabbed onto the seat of Zexion's pants. Both of them groaned as they struggled to keep the sleigh from sliding down, but instead they were getting dragged down with it.

Demyx shook his head. "Man, I never thought it would end this way," he said.

Zexion scrunched his eyebrows together. "What, being dragged down a cliff by hundreds of Christmas presents?"

Demyx shook his head again. "No, more like holding onto your pants for dear life while wearing antlers. It's just downright humiliating."

Zexion managed a half-smile. "Well, at least we're together one last time," he said. He knew I sounded cheesy, but he didn't care; they were about to die anyways.

These words gave Demyx the courage and strength to say what he had wanted to say for a very long time. "You know," he said. "I'm glad I get to spend my last moments, with someone like you. I always have liked you, Zexion. A lot."

Zexion felt a tear run down his face. "Yeah, me too," he said. And what happened then? Well, in Yuletideville they say that the man's small heart grew three sizes that day!

He smiled a really goofy, creepy kind of smile. Demyx stared at him, unsure of what had just happened. "Zexion?" he said.

Zexion blinked a few times, narrowed his eyes determinedly, and then turned to Demyx. "Hang on," he said.

"Huh?" said Demyx, and not a moment too soon. Zexion, overcome with his strange new strength his heart had given him, jumped up and lifted the sleigh up over his head like it weighed absolutely nothing at all.

And now that his heart didn't feel quite so tight, he whizzed with his load through the bright morning light. With a smile to his soul, he descended Mount Crumpet, cheerily blowing, "Toot! Toot!" on his trumpet.

He road into Yuletideville. He brought back their toys. He brought back their floof to the good girls and boys. He brought back their snoof and their tringlers and fuzzles, brought back their pantookas, their dafflers and wuzzles.

He brought everything back, all the food for the feast! And he, he himself, carved the roast beast!

Demyx held his hand as they ate through their meals. "Merry Christmas," he said.

Zexion smiled and squeezed his hand back. "Merry Christmas," he said.

The End.

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><p><strong>Yeah…I was originally going to end with "Merry Christmas to you."; "Don't talk while you chew", but that didn't seem very romantic….<strong>

**By the way, for all you "Open When I'm Dead" boys and girls, the boy band who performed, "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grouch" was the same boy band who did the song, "Falling For You All Over Again and Again." Just sayin' ;D**

**Sorry some of the rhymes were a little awkward sounding; I wanted to go with the original script, but I had to replace words like "Grinch" and "Who" and stuff. **

**Please R/R!**


	5. Flamesilocks

**Warning: This chapter contains Lea/Isa, Hayner/Pence (for the sole purpose of disturbing you all, mwahahaha!), Ansem/Kairi's Grandmother (for the sole purpose of disturbing you all EVEN MORE!), Santa's prejudice personality, the DARK side of Mrs. Claus, and A LOT of singing. You have been warned. **

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><p><span>Flamesilocks<span>

It all started a few years before the big snowstorm, down in the North Pole. One of Santa's main reindeer trainers, Hayner, had just become the proud father of a happy baby boy.

Hayner looked at his new son adoringly. "We'll name him Lea," he said lovingly.

His wife, Pence, smiled sweetly. "Lea is a lovely name," he said, too afraid to contradict with his husband.

The baby boy opened his eyes at the mention of his name. Hayner laughed. "Why, the young man knows his name already! He gets that from my side of the family!"

"Papa," said the baby boy. He lifted his head slightly out of his baby blanket, revealing a full head of spiky red hair.

His parents gasped. "Why, his hair is bright red!" exclaimed his mother.

His father frowned. "Indeed, he'll never fit in with the other trainers now. This is hopeless!"

Just then, Santa Clause himself entered the room. "Hello there, Hayner!" he said. He waltzed in without knocking.

Hayner sighed. "Hello, Ansem," he said, calling Santa Clause by his real name.

Ansem laughed. "I just thought I'd pop in to see the little fellow. After all, one day he'll have to be strong enough to become a professional reindeer trainer, just like his—GREAT BOUNCING ICEBURGS!" he screamed, taking a look at the boy's hair.

Hayner winced. "Now, I know it looks bad," he said. "But I'm sure it'll go away once he gets older."

"Let's hope so," said Ansem. He knelt down beside Lea. "You know, little guy, every year I string up my sleigh bells and select eight lucky trainers to lead my reindeer across the sky. In fact, just mentioning it makes me feel a song coming on!" Ansem winked at the baby boy, and cleared his throat.

_Jingle, jingle, jingle, you will hear my sleigh bells ring!_

_I am old Chris Cringle; I'm the King of jingling!_

_Jingle, jingle reindeer, through the frosty air they'll go!_

_They are not just reindeer; they're the fastest deer I know!_

_Ho-ho-ho!_

_You must believe that on Christmas Eve, I will pass you by!_

_I'll dash away in my magic sleigh, flying through the sky!_

_Jingle, jingle, jingle, you will hear my sleigh bells ring!_

_I am old Chris Cringle; I'm the King of jingling!_

_Jingle, jingle, jingle, you will hear my sleigh bells ring!_

_I am old Chris Cringle; I'm the King of jingling!_

And with that, Ansem leaped out of the cave to go bother someone else with his singing.

Lea waved one of his potatoey hands. "Bye-bye!" he gurgled.

Hayner sighed. "Oh, Ansem's right, he'll never make the team," he said. He paced across the room, trying to come up with a good idea. He snapped his fingers. "I've got it!" he cried. "We'll hide Lea's hair!"

Pence's eyes opened wide. "Hide it?" he said, putting her arm protectively around her new son.

"Yeah!" said Hayner. He ran to their bathroom as soon as he could, took Pence's shower cap off the hook, and stuck it on Lea's head. "Now he'll fit in with everybody else!"

Lea shook his head, trying to get the cap off his hair. Hayner laughed. "Oh, he'll get used to it," he said.

So for the next year, the family did pretty well with hiding Lea's hair. Hayner taught his son everything he knew; how to ride reindeer, and how to take care of them; but most importantly of all, he taught his son to beware of the Abominable Snow Monster of the North, for he was mean and nasty, and hated everything to do with Christmas.

Besides the Abominable, business goes on as usual. And soon, it is time for everybody to get ready for that big sleigh ride that takes place on the night of December 24.

Every toy that Ansem brings is made by elves. See, these elves have a certain knack for toy making, all except for one…misfit.

"Roxas!" screamed the head elf, Cid. "Are you done painting that wagon YET? There's a mile-long line behind you; what's taking you so long?"

Roxas sighed. "I'm sorry, sir, I guess I'm just not happy with my work."

"What?" screamed Cid, his eyes rolling around in his head. "What do you mean; you're not happy with your work?"

"I just don't like making toys," confessed Roxas, putting down his paintbrush.

Cid sighed with relief. "Well, if that's all-SLAP MY THIGHS AND CALL ME SUSANNA! YOU DON'T LIKE TO MAKE TOYS?"

"…No," said Roxas quietly.

Cid put his hands down on the table. "You hear that?" he said to the elf next to Roxas. "Roxas doesn't like to make toys!"

Soon, the fact spread as each elf told the elf next to him. They all glared at Roxas, their faces angry. "Shame on you!" they all said simultaneously.

"Do you mind telling me what you do want to do?" said Cid, afraid of what he was going to hear.

"Well, sir," said Roxas, looking down at his feet in embarrassment, "someday I'd like to be a…a dentist!"

"A DENTIST!" screamed Cid, his blood pressure rising. All of the other elves laughed at such a silly idea, but Roxas took it very seriously.

"Well, we need one here! I've been studying, sir, and it truly is very fascinating, you have no idea; there's molars, root canals, cavities…"

"Now listen here!" yelled Cid, interrupting Roxas' list. "You're an elf, and elves make toys!" He thrust a toy wagon into Roxas' arms. "Now, get to work!"

_RIIIING!_

"Ten minute break!" shouted Cid. All of the elves started filing out of the room. Roxas followed the crowd, but Cid grabbed him by the collar before he could leave.

"Not for you!" he said. "Finish the job, or you're FIRED!" Cid left the room, still mumbling about the ridiculousness of wanting to be a dentist.

Roxas continued painting the toy wagon, tears streaming down his face. Finally, he put the wagon down, picked up his big book entitled, DENTISTRY, and felt a song coming on.

_Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nitwit!_

_You can't fire me; I quit! Seems, I don't fit in!_

Meanwhile, Hayner had finally found something better to cover Lea's hair.

"Now, try this on," said Hayner, holding up a curly blond wig.

"But daddy," said Lea, who was still a young boy, "I don't want to—"

"You're going to wear it, and you're going to like it!" shouted Hayner. He forcefully stuck the wig on top of his son's head. "No son of mine is going to be a reject!"

Lea sighed as the itchy wig was placed over his head. Slouching and dragging his feet, Lea moped out of their cottage and stood outside in the cold snow. He took off his wig, threw it to the cold ground, and suddenly felt a reprise coming on.

_Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nitwit!_

_Just because my hair's red, why don't I fit in?_

Time passes, and soon it is time for school. It is the time when all of the children go out and meet new friends; it is also the time when Ansem makes his inspections.

Hayner gave his son a hearty slap on the back. "Now, don't worry about your hair, son. Just go out there, and show your stuff!"

Lea shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the group. A boy with sandy hair came over. "Hey there!" he said. "My name's Ventus! What's yours?"

"L-Lea," said Lea, a little shy about meeting strangers.

"Well then, Lea, wanna be my buddy?" asked Ventus, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Sure," said Lea, feeling much more comfortable. He followed Ventus over to another group of kids who were playing games.

Meanwhile meanwhile, the elves were showing Ansem the new song they had practiced. (The author would put the song in the story, but it was so long and so bad that she would prefer not to.)

Mrs. Ansem stood up and clapped. "Bravo! Bravo!" She turned to her husband for support.

Ansem raised his eyebrows. "Bernadette, are you kidding me? That was crap!" he whispered. (I always pictured Kairi's grandmother as a Bernadette, didn't you?)

Bernadette slapped his leg. "At least they tried!" she said.

Ansem, not being in a very generous mood, sighed. "Well, it needs work. I have to go," he said, and walked out of the room.

Bernadette rolled her eyes, and got out of her seat. "What does he know? It was beautiful! You keep it just the way it was." She ran out of the room, trying to find Ansem.

Cid blew up. "That was TERRIBLE!" he screamed. "The tenor section was way too weak!"

"It wasn't our fault!" shouted all the elves. "Roxas didn't show up!"

"WHAT?" Cid ran out of the room, breathing smoke out of his nostrils.

Roxas sat in his workshop, "fixing" a doll's teeth with a tiny hammer. "Now, this won't hurt a bit," he said like a crazy person who talks to dolls.

Cid slammed the door open. "YOU!" he growled, reaching his hands out to strangle the poor elf. "WHY WEREN'T YOU AT THE PERFORMANCE?"

Roxas protectively hid himself behind a chair, and gulped. "Well, sir, I was just fixing this doll's teeth, sir—"

"Fixing-LISTEN!" hissed Cid, lifting Roxas up into the air by his hat. "We have dolls that walk, talk, cry, blink, and run a temperature! The LAST thing we need are dolls that can chew!"

"I-I just thought I had found a way to...to fit in..."

"You'll NEVER fit in!" Cid yelled. He walked towards the door and turned around. "Now you BETTER come to elf practice to learn how to wiggle your ears and chuckle warmly and go 'he-he' and 'ho-ho', or ELSE!" He walked away, mumbling to himself, "What did I ever do to deserve this kind of punishment! A dentist…"

Roxas sighed, and grabbed his DENTISTRY book from underneath the table. "It's like he said, I guess I'll never fit in," he said.

He opened up a window, and stepped outside. "I guess I'm on my own now," he said. And with that, Roxas shut the window behind him, and began his journey into the great outdoors.

Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile, Lea and Ventus were playing together in the snow, when Ventus looked behind Lea and smiled. "Hey, check out those girls over there," he said.

Lea turned and saw a group of pretty looking girls standing in a row, giggling. But what really caught his attention, was the boy standing alone next to them; his blue-ish silver hair swaying in the breeze.

Ventus elbowed him in the shoulder. "Heeeey," he said, winking. "Watcha doin'?" he asked, nodding towards the blue-haired boy.

Lea shrugged him off. "N-Nothing," he said.

"Alright, ladies and gents!" yelled a loud voice. "Time to gather up!"

Ventus beckoned Lea over. "That's the coach," he said, a respectful look in his eye.

"Hello there!" said their coach, a tall muscular man with brown hair that almost looked as red as Lea's but not nearly as bright. "My name is Coach Lexaeus! My job is to make MEN out of all you wimps, so let's go!" He blew on his whistle, starting the session.

"Now then," he said. "Our first game is called, 'Takeoff', because all of you WIMPS are going to have to learn how to teach reindeer how to fly." He whistled again, and a young reindeer came out, his legs still wobbling a little from prematurity. "Who wants to go first?"

All of the young boys jumped at their coach, begging to go first. Lexaeus swatted them away with his cap. "ALRIGHT ALREADY! You there, you can go first," he said to a random kid.

Slowly, the young boy got on top of the reindeer, gave it a running start, and flew off, smashing his face into the snow.

While all the other children laughed, Ventus gave Lea the elbow again. "Now's your chance to make a move!" he whispered.

Lea nodded. He puffed out his chest real big, slicked back his wig, and walked over to the blue-haired boy.

"Nice day," said the blue-haired boy, looking down at his shoes.

"Uhh, yeah," said Lea, disappointed at how the conversation was going. He scratched his wig nervously.

"F-For takeoff practice, I mean," said the blue-haired boy. "I bet you'll be the best."

Lea blushed and scratched his wig again. "Aw, I don't know," he said.

The blue-haired boy looked at him strangely. "Is something wrong with your hair? It's just…you keep scratching your head."

Lea, embarrassed by his constant scratching, got very defensive. "Is it a crime to scratch your head?" he said freshly.

"Oh no," said the boy, worried. "I didn't mean it like that! I don't really care anyways."

Lea calmed down. "Y-You don't?" he said. He liked this boy already.

"My name's Isa," said the boy. "Hi..."

"My name's Lea," said Lea. "Hi…"

"Hi…" repeated Isa. They both stared dreamily at each other for about two minutes.

Finally, Lea broke the silence. "Say, Isa, do you…well, would you want to—"

"Lea!" shouted Lexaeus. "Stop talking and get your butt over here! It's your turn, you know!"

"Oh!" panicked Lea. He quickly finished what he was going to say. "Would you walk home with me?"

Isa blinked at him a few times. "Uh-huh," he said, a smile forming on his face. As Lea started to go, Isa finally found what he was going to say. "Hey, Lea!" he said.

Lea walked over. Isa cupped his hands around his mouth and whispered in his ear, "I think you're cute."

Lea's face blushed bright red. Excited with this new knowledge, he jumped on top of the practice reindeer, and flew two feet off the ground, landing beside Coach Lexaeus.

"Wow!" said the coach. "That's marvelous!"

Lea didn't hear him. "I'm cute! I'm cute!" he shouted. He steered the reindeer up into the sky again, flying higher and longer than before.

Right at that moment, Ansem appeared on the scene, apparently free from his wife for the time being. "Not bad!" he said, gaping at Lea with wide eyes that twinkled. "Not bad at all!"

Lea landed with beside Ventus, out of breath. "That was amazing!" complimented Ventus.

"She said I'm cute!" exclaimed Lea. Ventus laughed with excitement as they jumped up and down, giving each other slaps on the back and high-fives.

Unfortunately, Lea jumped up and down so hard that his wig flew off his head and landed in the snow beside him.

"CHRIS CRINGLE ON A CUPCAKE!" shouted Ventus, covering his eyes to shield himself from the bright redness of Lea's hair.

"What's wrong, Ven?" asked Lea, unaware of his hair-mishap.

"G-Get away from me, freak!" shouted Ventus.

"What's the holdup here, guys?" said Coach Lexaeus. "It almost sounds like—LADY GAGA ON TOAST!" he screamed, jumping backwards. "W-What's wrong with your hair?"

All the other kids gathered around him, gasping at first. Then they all started to laugh as Lea desperately tried to cover his head.

"Look at his hair!"

"Hey, Firehead!"

"Hey, Lightbulb!"

"Hey, Gingerbread-head!"

"How about Flamesilocks?"

"Yeah, Flamesilocks!"

Lea covered his face. "Stop calling me names!" he shouted weakly in his defense. This just made them laugh harder.

Ansem frowned at Hayner and shook his head. "Hayner! You should be ashamed of yourself! And to think, I was just about to put him on the team!" Hayner hung his head in shame.

Lexaeus blew his whistle. "Come on folks! Back to practice!"

Everyone groaned and started to walk back to the practice area. But Lexaeus put his arm in front of Lea, guarding the way. "Oooh, no!" he said. "You better go on home with your family! From now on, we're not going to let Lea join any of our flying games, right guys?" All of the other students cheered.

Lea, unable to stand the shameful looks on his parent's faces and the taunts of his classmates, ran off towards the woods, to somewhere where no one could make fun of him.

As Lea ran, he heard a voice shout behind him, "Lea! Lea, wait!"

Lea stopped in his tracks and looked back. Isa caught up with him, his face red from running so much.

"What do you want?" demanded Lea, wiping tears from his eyes.

"You promised you were going to walk me home," said Isa sadly.

Lea looked at Isa, confused. "Aren't you going to make fun of my hair, too?"

Isa smiled, making the whole forest light up. "I think your hair looks awesome, a lot better than that weird wig you were wearing, anyway."

"B-But it looks horrible!" complained Lea. "It's so different from everyone else's…"

"But that's what makes it so cool!" said Isa. "Anyone should consider themselves lucky to be with you!"

Lea blushed again. "Yeah?" he said, his voice gleaming with new confidence. But remembering that day made his confidence leave him again. "I wasn't very lucky today though," he said. "I wish…I wish…"

Isa put his fingers to Lea's lips as he felt an urge to break into song.

_There's always tomorrow for dreams to come true_

_Believe in your dreams, come what may!_

_There's always tomorrow with so much to do_

_And solely to time in a day!_

All of the sudden, small groups of woodland creatures gathered to listen to his song. Isa smiled and continued to sing as rabbits and raccoons swayed arm in arm, while Lea was slightly creeped out.

_We all pretend that the rain will have an end_

_And you'll be there my friend, someday!_

_There's always tomorrow for dreams to come true_

_Tomorrow is not far away!_

Lea nearly jumped out of his skin as all the animals started to sing along.

_We all pretend that the rain will have an end_

_And you'll be there my friend, someday!_

_There's always tomorrow for dreams to come true_

_Tomorrow is not far away!_

Lea and Isa smiled at each other lovingly, and started to walk towards the end of the woods, hand in hand.

"Isa!" shouted a gruff voice.

Lea and Isa suddenly turned to see a tall, scary looking man with a scar and an eye patch headed towards them. "Oh no," said Isa. "It's my father!"

"Isa, you go back inside the house right this very minute!" shouted his father, Braig.

"But, father—"

"This INSTANT!" he screamed forcefully.

Isa hung his head, let go of Lea's hand, and shuffled on home. Braig turned to Lea, and sneered. "No son of mine is going to be seen with a good-for-nothing-red-head-hippie like you!" he said like a meanie. He turned on his heel, and headed off after Isa, ready to scold him when they got home.

Even sadder than before, Lea sighed and walked off again, his confidence and spirit no more than the size of a pea at his point.

Out of the blue, an elf (Roxas) suddenly popped out of a snow bank, his head the only part of him poking out.

"I'm sorry," he said politely. "Is this your snow bank?"

Lea jumped back, startled. "Who are you?" he said.

Roxas jumped out of the snow bank, his feet landing on the ground so lightly they hardly made any noise at all. "Why, I'm a dentist!" he said proudly.

Lea tried not to giggle at the thought. "A…dentist?" he said, covering his smile.

Roxas sighed and looked down at his pointy green shoes. "At least I want to be," he said. "Right now, I'm just an elf."

His tone suddenly changed to anger. "But, I don't need anybody!" he said, raising his fist in protest. "I'm independent!"

"Really?" said Lea, delighted to know that there was someone else in the same situation as he was. "Me too! I'm…whatever you just said!" He smiled with one corner of his mouth.

A tree branch fell behind them. Neither one of them would admit it, but being out in the woods all alone scared both of them to death.

"Say," said Roxas, thinking of a good excuse not to go alone. "Why don't we be independent together?"

Lea smiled shyly. "You don't mind my hair?" he said, pointing.

To be honest, Roxas thought that the boy's hair looked absolutely ridiculous, but he didn't say it. "Just as long as you don't mind me being a dentist," he said.

Lea could never imagine an elf like him ever becoming a dentist; the thought was just too hilarious. But he didn't say it. "It's a deal!" he said, shaking hands with the elf.

And then, the strangest thing happened when they touched hands at that very moment—they both had the urge to sing.

_We're a couple of misfits! We're a couple of misfits!_

_What's the matter with misfits? That's where we fit in!_

_We're not daffy and silly, don't go 'round willy nilly_

_Seems to us kind of silly, that we don't fit in!  
>We may be different from the rest, who decides the test of what is really best!<br>We're a couple of misfits; we're a couple of misfits, what's the matter with misfits, that's where we fit in!_

Lea cleared his throat and prepared for a solo:

_Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nitwit!_

_Just because my hair's red, why don't I fit in?_

Roxas created a snowman that looked like Cid, and then punched it down as he sang his own solo:

_Why am I such a misfit? I am not just a nitwit!_

_You can't fire me; I quit! Seems, I don't fit in!_

They walked over to the pond and stared at their reflections, just as a large fish came up and squirted water in Roxas' face. Laughing, they continued to sing together.

_We may be different from the rest, who decides the test of what is really best!  
>We're a couple of misfits; we're a couple of misfits, what's the matter with misfits, that's where we fit in!<em>

The two of them, arm in arm as if they had been friends for years, walked out of the woods and into the wild, unaware of the dangers that waited for them there.

In fact, as they shuffled through the cold night, they were almost spotted by the Abominable Snow Monster.

"He probably sees your hair!" whispered Roxas as they heard a low growl and footsteps. "Quick; hide!"

Roxas smashed Lea's head into the snowy ground as the Abominable lurked in the mountains behind them, and disappeared back into his cave.

But somehow, they managed to make it through the first night without any trouble.

Lea and Roxas clung together for warmth as they shuffled through endless snow banks, until they heard shouts and yells.

"Yaah! Yaaahhh!"

Panicking, Roxas and Lea fumbled as to where they were going to hide, finally deciding on shoving themselves into the snow mound next to them.

A man with a festive grass skirt came over on his sled, a pack of tired sled dogs pulling him forward. The man saw the two bodies sticking out of the mound and came over to inspect.

"What's this?" he said. He put away his whip, walked over to the bodies, and yanked them out with all his strength.

"You need to be more careful next time, okay kids?" said the man, even though it was quite obvious. He pushed back his silver hair like a model. "You could get frostbite that way!"

"Who are you?" asked Lea, his eyes wide with amazement. He had never seen a man so…exotic looking before.

"Allow me to introduce myself," he said. The man jumped up on a raised platform of ice, as if it were a stage. He bowed. "The name's Riku, The Greatest Prospector in the North! And this is my land, rich with gold! GOLD!" he screamed, making their whole environment shake.

He continued his speech. "Gold and silver! Silver and gold! Whoopeeeee!"

He flipped his pickax up in the air, where it landed by sticking itself into the hard ice. Riku picked up the pickax and sniffed it, even licked it with the very tip of his tongue for a spot of silver or gold.

He sighed. "Nothin'" he said sadly. Even though he couldn't find any gold, he couldn't help but feel a weird tingling sensation down in his throat, which spread all the way to his arms until he was forced to take a banjo out of his backpack. Why, it was the urge to sing, of course!

_Silver and gold, silver and gold, everyone wishes for silver and gold!_

_How do you measure its worth? Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth!_

_Silver and gold, silver and gold, means so much more when I see!_

_Silver and gold decorations, on every Christmas tree!_

"What is a Christmas tree without tinsel and pretty silver and gold decorations?" he asked. Lea jumped back as the same woodland creatures from before started putting up decorations on a random pine tree to their left.

"Can't call it silver and gold, now can you?" said Riku. A squirrel shook his head.

Roxas pointed to the squirrel. "How does it…?"

Lea shook his head. "I dunno, I honestly don't know…"

"And think of all the fun and joy that would be lost on Christmas morning if all the young folks didn't get to see that sparkling, happy tree." He shook his head, and smiled.

_Silver and gold, silver and gold, means so much more when I see!_

_Silver and gold decorations, on every Christmas tree!_

Riku put his banjo away, and rubbed his hands together. "Well, I'm off to go get some more supplies, you know, gunpowder, cornmeal, more grass for my skirt, and guitar strings. I'll give you a lift; hop aboard!"

Riku helped Lea and Roxas onto his sled, picked up his whip, and started using it on the dogs again. "Mush!" he cried. "Muuush!"

But the dogs refused to move; they had had enough walking for one day.

Riku rolled his eyes, unhooked their harnesses, and used them to pull the sled himself. "Like this," he said, demonstrating.

But instead of taking it as a demonstration, the dogs hopped onto the sled next to Lea and Roxas, leaving all the pulling to Riku.

But they had only traveled a few feet when an ear-splitting roar pierced through the air.

_ROOOAAARRRR!_

"HOLY SMOKED HAM ON RYE!" screamed Riku. "It's the Abominable!"

The Abominable peaked his head out between two mounds in front of them, snarling and bearing his teeth.

"It's my hair!" wailed Lea. "It's giving us away again!"

"Well," said Riku. "In times like these, it is important that we outsmart the Abominable using our brains and knowledge!"

"What do you mean?" said Lea.

"Well," said Riku again. "First, we should—RRUUUUNNN!" he screamed out of the blue. He pulled the sled along behind him as he ran as fast as he could, the Abominable following close behind.

They reached the end of the road, for there was only water stretching out for miles and miles in front of them.

"We're trapped!" cried Lea, stating the obvious. "There's no way out! It's my nose! It's finished us!"

The Abominable was quickly starting to get closer and closer, his growls and shrieks getting louder and louder.

Riku narrowed his eyes. "Not quite," he argued. "The Abominable has one weakness, and I know it!"

Using his pickax one more time, he chipped away at the ice surrounding their sled, until they finally broke away into the water.

"Observe," said Riku, "the Abominable's one weakness!"

The Abominable looked questioningly at the water ahead of him, and stepped in with one foot. Faster than they thought, the monster quickly sank down below the water's surface, practically drowning.

Riku jumped and cheered. "The Abominable sinks!" he said.

Unfortunately, the Abominable wasn't dead yet; his quickly boosted himself back out of the water and onto the snow banks once again, growling angrily at them, as if to say he would plot his revenge.

For the meanwhile though, they were safe. "Riku scores again! Whoopee!" Riku flipped his pickax into the air again, where it stuck into their ice float.

Once again, he yanked out his tool and inspected it closely for any signs of riches, smelling it and tasting it. "Nothing," he said disappointed once more.

Slightly weirded out by all of his random pickax inspections, Lea went on and asked the important question of the moment. "What's going to happen now?"

"Why, you're coming to live with me, of course!" exclaimed Riku, his face cheery and red from the excitement and cold. "And we're going to be rich! Rich on silver! SILVER!"

Roxas cocked his head. "But…I thought you said you were hunting for gold."

Riku put his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes. "Well, I changed my mind," he said matter-of-factly.

Lea and Roxas glanced at each other, fully comprehending the level of insanity this man had to offer. But even if Riku didn't make any sense, and even though they all had no idea where they were going, they continued their journey with high hopes for what the future had to offer them.

Back to the meanwhiles, Hayner was naturally pretty upset about what had happened, and decided to go out looking for his son.

Pence protested; he wanted to go with him. But Hayner refused. "This is man's work," he said sexistly.

But no sooner had he left, that Isa appeared at their home. Together, he and Pence decided to go out and search for Lea themselves, no matter what everyone else thought.

As for our other travelers, they were still floating along on their ice raft when they started encountering a thick layer of fog.

"Helloooo!" shouted Riku, waiting to see if he could get any response. He sighed as he was only returned with an eerie silence. "Humph, thick as peanut butter," he muttered.

Roxas cleared his throat. "You mean, pea soup," he said in his know-it-all tone.

Riku rolled his eyes again; he was really starting to get ticked at this little elf. "You eat what you like, and I'll eat what I like!" he growled.

_CRASH!_

The group fell forward as they crashed into another snow bank, presumably land.

"Land-hooo!" hollered Riku.

Roxas rolled his eyes; the crusader's sudden outbursts found to be quite annoying. He rubbed his aching back. "No kidding," he said.

Lea sat right side up and looked around nervously. "Where are we?" he said.

As soon as he said that, the sun suddenly passed through the fog and rested its bright light upon a beautiful ice castle rested between the mountains.

While the two kids were busy staring in awe at the palace, Riku gasped and pointed up at the sky. "Look at that!" he said.

Lea and Roxas forced their eyes away from the shining palace and looked up. There, flying high in the sky loud and proud was an angelic man with long silver hair and a black wing.

Roxas gasped and backed up into a box behind him, in which a person popped out. "Who goes there?" he cried. Actually, he wasn't even a person; he was a talking jack-in-the-box!

"Us of course; who'd you think?" said Riku, folding his arms. (As if he was being the stupid one in this particular situation.)

"Oh," said the toy. "Well, that's okay—OKAY? Well then, who may I ask, are you?"

"We're Lea, Roxas, and Riku," said Lea politely. "Who are you?"

"Why, I am the sentry to the Island of Misfit Toys," he said, a dignified gleam in his eyes.

Roxas couldn't help but giggle. "A jack-in-the-box for a sentry—"

"Yes!" interrupted the toy, annoyed. "My name is—"

"Don't tell me!" Lea interrupted the interrupter. "You're Jack!"

"N-No!" stammered the toy, tears forming in his eyes. "I-It's Seifer!" he wailed. He burst into tears. "I'm a misfit; don't you see? Nobody wants to play with a Seifer in the box!"

"What is here, exactly?" asked Roxas. As if on cue, music suddenly started to play as toys from all across the island came over and explained—in song, naturally.

_We're on the Island of Misfit Toys; here we don't want to stay!  
>We want to travel with Santa Claus in his magic sleigh!<br>A packful of toys means a sackful of joys for millions of girls and for millions of boys!  
>When Christmas Day is here, the most wonderful day of the year!<br>A jack in the box waits for children to shout, "Wake up, don't you know that it's time to come out!"  
>When Christmas Day is here, the most wonderful day of the year!<br>Toys galore scattered on the floor!  
>There's no room for more, and it's all because of Santa Claus!<br>A scooter for Jimmy, a dolly for Sue - the kind that will even say "How do you do?"  
>When Christmas Day is here the most wonderful day of the year!<em>

Some of the toys shook their heads sadly. "How would you like to be a spotted elephant?"

"Or a choo-choo with square wheels on your caboose?"

"Or a water pistol that squirts jelly?"

"We're all misfits!"

"How would you like to be a bird that doesn't fly; I swim!"

"Or a cowboy that rides an ostrich?"

"Or a boat that can't stay afloat?"

"We're all misfits!"

_If we're on the island of unwanted toys, we'll miss all the fun with the girls and the boys!_

_When Christmas day is here; the most wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,_

_Wonderful day of the year!_

"Hey!" shouted Lea, sprouting an idea. "We're all misfits too; maybe we could stay here for a while!"

"Well," said Seifer uncertainly. "You would have to get permission from our king, Sephiroth!"

"Who's Sephiroth?" asked Lea.

"He rules here! Every night he searches the entire Earth; when he finds a misfit toy, one that no little boy or girl loves, he brings it here to live on this island 'till someone wants it. In fact, he's holding court in his castle right now! Follow me!"

So the group followed Seifer as he led them up a steep slope and into the grand palace, where Sephiroth sat on a throne made of crystal and ice.

"Come closer," he said, the tiny crown on his head shining in the light. "What do you desire?" Frankly, the king didn't care what the group desired; it was stated in his contract that he had to say that every time a tourist lost their way and ended up on the island by accident.

"We're misfits from Christmas Town, sir," said Lea. "And now, we'd like to live here!"

"No, that wouldn't be possible!" panicked Sephiroth. He was having population problems as it was—what with the risk off rebellion and all. He made up an excuse on the spot. "This island is for toys only."

"How do you like that?" said Riku. "Even among misfits; you're a misfit!"

Now that hurt. "Unlike playthings," spat Sephiroth, holding back tears. "A living creature cannot hide himself on an island. But perhaps, being misfits yourselves, you might help the toys here."

"Help them?" questioned Lea.

"Yes," said Sephiroth. "When someday you return to Christmas Town, would you tell Santa about our homeless toys? I'm sure he could find little boys and girls who could be happy with them. A toy is never truly happy until he is loved by a child…or until he gets his own condominium with a Jacuzzi." The king, of course, muttered the last part under his breath longingly.

"When and if we ever get back," said Lea. "We'll tell Santa, sir!"

"Good. You are free to spend the night," said the king. He clapped his hands together, and some toys appeared at his side. "Footmen," said Sephiroth. "Show them to their chambers."

In their chambers (which were rather small considering it was meant for toys), Roxas argued with Lea. "No, it's settled; we leave tomorrow at dawn together."

"But the Abominable will see my hair and get us all," complained Lea, running his fingers through his bright red hair. "I have to go alone!"

"Nonsense!" cried Riku. "It's all for all and one for...not wait, it's all for two and one for...no, no wait..." He groaned at his own fumbles and mistakes. "Let's just get some shut eye!"

"But..." began Lea.

"It's all settled!" pushed Roxas. Before anybody could say anything else, he turned off the lights, and he and Riku fell fast asleep.

But Lea knew that he couldn't put his friends in danger, so he snuck out while they were still asleep, and continued his journey on his own.

"Goodbye Riku," he said. "I hope you find lots of tinsel. Goodbye Roxas. Whatever requirements you need to become a dentist, I hope you become the greatest dentist ever."

And with that, he floated away on the ice raft, towards his future, or sudden death.

Time passed on once more. Lea continued to travel on his own, for the Abominable kept him on the run. But once in a while, he stopped to make a friend or two with the woodland creatures that used to freak him out so much. But it would never last long, and before he knew it, he would be on his own again.

And during the time he had on his own, he slowly transformed. He was no longer a boy on his own anymore; he was a young man, with more knowledge with every passing day. And with that knowledge, came understanding: you can't run away from your troubles. He knew he was going to have to go home.

But by the time he got home, it was far too late already; his parents were gone. "Mom! Dad! I'm home!" he shouted, his new deeper voice echoing throughout their empty house.

"They're not here, Lea," said a familiar voice.

Lea turned and saw Ansem standing in the entrance of the cave, a sad look on his face. "They've been gone for months, out looking for you."

Lea pondered this. He had never realized that his parents might have cared enough to actually go out and look for him. "What about Isa?" he asked.

"She's gone too. And I'm getting worried. Christmas Eve is only two days away, and without your father, I'll never be able to control my reindeer." Because of course, he didn't care about the rest of them.

Lea nodded. "I'll find them," he said. "I'll find them all sir, and bring them back! I promise!"

And just as he left, it hit. The ultimate snow storm. It ripped the shingling off of Ansem's house; it tore igloos right off the ground; it even tore off Cid's clothes, much to the dismay of all the other elves.

Now Lea knew that he had to find them fast, before the storm got even worse. And what's more; he knew just where to look: the cave of the Abominable Snow Monster.

He burst in through the cave entrance, and not a moment too soon. The Abominable was holding Isa in one of his big paws, and was just about to eat him right up.

"Put him down!" screamed Lea. The monster noticed Lea at the cave entrance, and his attention was suddenly caught. He put down Isa, and slowly started to stumble towards the man, a hungry look in his eyes.

But Lea was quicker; he stepped out of the way right as the monster jumped at him. The Abominable fell to the ground with a loud CRASH, his eyes spinning around in his head.

Angry with the monster for tearing him away from his friends, hunting him down relentlessly and almost eating his boyfriend, Lea grabbed a sharp stick and jabbed at the monster's butt as he lay there.

The Abominable roared with the pain, and jumped up onto his feet again. His eyes red with rage, he broke a stalactite off of the ceiling and threw it at Lea, knocking him unconscious and possibly dead. The monster roared in victory.

For the last meanwhile, Roxas and Riku were still out searching for their friend, as they had been ever since he left. Fortunately, upon arriving at Christmas Town, Ansem told them of Lea's whereabouts.

Roxas and Riku peeked into the cave. "What do we do?" asked Roxas, hopping up and down with worry. "We can't let that monster get a hold of them!"

Riku thought for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "I've got a plan!" he said. "But I'm not sure if it'll work!"

While he whispered the plan into Roxas' ear, the monster was creeping closer and closer to Lea and his family.

Isa stroked Lea's hair as he continued to not wake up. "Oh, why doesn't he just get it over with?" he cried, losing all hope.

Lea slowly stirred. "Mother...father...Isa..." he mumbled.

Roxas' eyes went wide as he understood his plan. "But are you sure we can get him outside?" he said.

Riku shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "But I've never known a snow monster yet, who would turn down a tasty pork dinner! Do your stuff!"

As Riku took his position hanging on the rim of the cave, Roxas crawled towards the cave entrance. "Oink, oink," he mumbled. He wanted to be a dentist, not an actor.

Riku groaned at his weak attempt. "Put some heart into it!" he said. "That monster's hungry!"

Roxas rolled his eyes and tried harder. "Oink! Oink! Oink!"

Convinced that there was really a pig out in the middle of the North Pole, the monster stopped trying to eat Lea and his family, and started stumbling towards the cave entrance, licking his lips.

"Whahooooo!" called Riku. From the top of the cave entrance, he pushed a hard ball of ice and snow down onto the Abominable's head, and knocking him down. He then proceeded with pushing a rock onto the monster's head, knocking him out completely.

"Alright, dentist!" shouted Riku. "Do your stuff!"

Roxas nodded proudly, and walked over to the monster's mouth with a large pair of teeth-puller's in his hands.

Lea gasped. "Hey, Riku, long time no see!"

Riku bowed before him like he did when they first met. "Tah-dah!" he announced. "In person!"

"We're saved!" cried Isa.

"Let's get out of here!" shouted Hayner.

_RROOOOAAAARR!_

Everyone gasped as the Abominable appeared before them again, angrier than before. Curses!" cried Riku.

Just then, Roxas walked out from between the monster's legs. "No need to worry anymore, fellahs," he said. "Just walk right past him!"

He pointed up to the creatures mouth, where everyone noticed that he no longer had any teeth; just gums!

Roxas twirled the teeth-pullers in his hand like a pro, a pile of large white teeth lying beside him.

Riku laughed. "Why, he's nothing but a teddy bear now! Let me at him!" He ran forward and jumped at him, making the monster jump back in fright. He kept jumping at him and psyching him out, marveling at how he had turned into a complete coward.

But sadly, neither Riku nor the monster saw the cliff behind them, and as Riku jumped on him one last time, the two of them fell down down down.

"Riku!" Lea and Roxas shouted. They both ran to the edge of the cliff and called his name over and over again. "Riku! Riku!"

Lea hung his head. "He's gone," he said. "Gone, gone, gone!"

Everyone mourned deeply for the loss of their friend, but they knew that they had to get everyone home before Christmas. So, with heavy hearts, they all headed back to Christmas Town together.

As soon as they got back and told everyone their story, the people of Christmas Town realized that maybe they had been a little hard on the misfits, and that maybe there was a place for them, too.

Even Ansem admitted he was wrong. "Lea," he said. He put his hands on the young man's shoulders. "I promise, when this storm lets up, I'll find a home for all the misfit toys."

Cid sighed. "Alright," he said. "I guess...you can open up a dentist office near the workshop. But after Christmas!"

Roxas shook his hand excitedly. "You've got yourself a deal!" he cried. "Say, open your mouth."

Reluctantly, Cid opened his mouth and let Roxas take a look. Roxas shook his head. "Tsk, tsk," he tsked. "You're going to have to schedule an appointment with me right after Christmas!"

Cid, taken aback by the thought that he would even have to visit a dentist, just nodded his head like a codfish.

Hayner sat down with his son and had a long chat. "And I'm sorry son," he concluded after spending ten minutes talking about his childhood. "For the way I acted...

_Knock! Knock! Knock!_

"Open up!" shouted a familiar voice from outside. "This night is neither fit for man or beast!"

As the double doors opened, Riku entered on his sleigh, carrying a leash behind him. "Here's the man," he said, introducing himself. "And here's the beast!"

Everyone gasped as the Abominable came in through the door behind him, a large collar around his neck to where the leash was attached.

"Now, now!" said Riku, putting his hands up to silence everyone. "I've reformed this creature! He wants a job! Just look at what he can do."

The beast stood up, and put a star on the top of the Grand Christmas Tree. Everyone ooed and awed. Now the elves wouldn't have to use a stepladder anymore!

Lea was confused, and so were the others. "But...you went over the side of the cliff!" he cried.

"Didn't I ever tell you?" asked Riku, winking at him. "Abominables bounce!"

Everyone laughed at the little joke he made. (Was it really a joke?)

The next day, there was no more celebrating, for everyone was rushing to get ready for Christmas.

"Papa, eat! EAT!" shrieked Bernadette to her husband, who hadn't even touched his food. "Nobody likes a skinny Santa!"

Ansem groaned. "But how can I eat, when they're singing that song again?" he moaned, pointing towards the elf workshop where they were singing their song from before.

"You're going to disappoint the children!" whined his wife. "They're expecting a fat Santa! Now, eat! EAT!" Her crazy bloodshot eyes got bigger with every word.

Before Ansem could point out that she was CRAZY, an elf walked up to Santa's table. "Here you go, Santa," he said, giving him sheets of paper with the weather reports.

Ansem looked them over and sighed. "It says here that the storm isn't going to clear up before Christmas," he said. He sighed. "It looks like we're going to have to cancel Christmas this year. Oh, the poor children. And they've been so good this year. Oh, well, I'm going to have to go tell everybody" he said.

He slowly strode into the workshop, where everybody was singing and talking and laughing as they put together the presents and the sleigh. "Everyone!" shouted Ansem. "Quiet, please!"

Slowly, everyone went silent to hear what he had to say. "I've...I've got some bad news," he said.

Everyone around him gasped and came closer. "We're...going to have to cancel Christmas this year," said Ansem.

They all started to cry. All that work, for nothing. Ansem put his hands up again to silence them. "I know this is very disappointing to you all," he said. "But it's...it's...ugh, Lea, can you step out of the way? You're hair is right in my eyes, it's driving me...that's it!"

Ansem grabbed each of Lea's shoulders and shook him back and forth. "Your hair! You're grand, beautiful, luscious hair!"

Lea backed away. "Huh?" he said, unsure of whether Ansem was coming onto him or not.

"Everyone!" Ansem shouted. "Christmas is not off! Christmas is most certainly on again, and I want Lea to lead my sleigh team!"

"I-I am?" stuttered Lea, shocked and excited all at the same time.

"Yes you are! You and that wonderful head of hair of yours!" said Ansem, almost reaching out his hand to stroke it.

Lea coiled back. "My hair, sir?" he asked.

"Yes!" shouted Ansem, for he had gone as crazy as his wife. "From what I see, your hair is going to shine through the murkiest storm Mother Nature can dish out!"

All the elves and reindeer trainers smiled in approval as they understood his plan. Ansem cleared his throat nervously, and put his hand on Lea's shoulder. "I guess what I'm trying to say is...Lea, with your hair so bright, won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Lea smiled. "It would be an honor, sir!" said Lea. Everyone cheered.

Hayner wiped away a man tear. "I knew that nose would be helpful someday," he said. Pence rolled his eyes.

So the next night, Ansem made sure he was good and fat for his Christmas journey, while Lea saddled onto the first reindeer up front.

First stopping at the Island of Misfit Toys, Ansem made sure that all the toys were put into his bag to give to all the children of the world.

And as for Lea, _he went down in history!_

The End.

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><p><strong>Hope you liked all the random song outbursts! And please RR!**


	6. Epilogue

Riku yawned. "Well guys," he said, taking off his blindfold. "I think it's about time we all went to...sleep?"

Everyone lay in a heap on the floor, fast asleep. Riku could even hear Roxas snoring from the bathroom.

Riku chuckled and shook his head. He got up from his chair, blew his nose as quietly as he could, and walked over to the window.

Outside, the island remained in pitch black as all the families turned off their house lights and waited for Santa Claus.

Riku sighed, and took a seat near the window, looking out at the glistening ocean. He was, in fact, so distracted that he didn't get the chance to look up at Kingdom Hearts in time.

"Ho-ho-ho!"

Riku snapped his head back up and looked at the moon, where he briefly thought he saw the silhouette of Santa Clause and his sleigh against the bright heart-shaped moon in the sky.

He smiled. "Merry Christmas to all," he said.

And to all a good night. :)

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><p><strong>Wow...I didn't even know I had a cheesy ending like that in me! That definitely came from a different section of my subconscious...<strong>

**Anyways, my Christmas story is FINALLY DONE! I hope you all enjoyed it!**

**Please remember to R/R, and feel free to check out some of my other stories as well!**


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